Omaha daily bee., 1897-11-05
DEBT OF CITY IN QUESTION
Injunction Suit Brings Up a Matter
Important to Citizens.
SHEA SAYS LEGAL LIMIT HAS B:eN PASSED
Asks Judge Green to Prevent th'
Issuance of Further warrants
or the Payment of Bonds
Issued since 1SOJ.

Issued Since 1S0J.
]. ]. Shea, who has not been before the
public since his whirl with the saloon
keepers, when he posed as their special
Nemesis, reappeared yesterday with another
application for an injunction. This time 1t
is against the whole city. He applied to
Judge Green for an order restraining the
mayor, all Of the members of the city coun-
ell, the auditor and the treasurer from issu-
ing any more warrants or paying any of the
bonds that have been issued since January
/, 1896.
The petition is brief. 1t begins by reciting
that Mr. Shea is citizen and taxpayer of
the city, and that the city has been doing
and contemplates still doing things in con-
nection with its financial affairs that are
Illegal. These things are specifically set
forth in the numerous paragraphs The first
paragraph contains the assertion that the
bonded Indebtedness al the present time is
far in excess OF the legal limits, and recites
that the valuation of city property for taxa
ticn purposes in 1894 was 50, ,357, ,26S; in 1895,
it was S496S, ,S4S; in 1896 it was $4914,S94,
and in 1897 it was s4,56S,39S. statement
of the City's indebtedness on October l. 1897,
is appended as follows:
General fund warrants.............$1i .$1i2, sos. &C
Special fund warrants. 72.l2
Water fund warrants. S.....,......... O5,5i1'VV
General bonds. 1Ol, 4OOOO
Intersection sewer bonds. ........... 6I01090
Intersection grading bonds.,....... &,5OlO0
Intersection paving bonds. s.......,... 1i6,5O0O0
Special assessment sewer bonds..,. 10000
Special assessment grading bonds. zO6yO0O
Special assessment paving bondS... 6j,O0D.UO
Total Indebtedness ss...............s $685., ,G56 IS
Section 2, article xxx, of the constitution
of Iowa is quoted to show that no city or
political corporation can contract indebted
ness in excess of per cent of taXabe value
and the fact is pointed Qut that under this
provision only $243,744.7O can be collected
annually in tlXes, and he shows that the
city is consequently indebted at the present
time the sum of $3.50, ,9l2.OS in excess OF the
legal limits
Paragraph TX asserts that the city is about
to allow and order paid large sums of money
and sign warrants in excess of the legal
Indebtedness; that the city auditor is about to
issue and is daily issuing warrants in excess
Of the legal debt; that the city treasurer is
daily paying warrants and claims against
the city which are Illegal and void because
thoy have been issued in excess of the legal
limits of Indebtedness. He asks the court
to permit the case to hive a speedy hearing
and to issue an order defining the kind Of
notice that shall be given 10 the defendants
be issued enjoining the city and all the
officials from making any more contracts or
issuing any more warrants or other evidences
of Indebtedness to pay current expenses, or
any of the matured or maturing obligations
OF the city contracted since January /, 1896
DATE FOR HEARING FIXED.
The application was submitted to Judge
Green during the morning session, and he
made an order setting the case for hear
ing on November Is, and directed that per-
sonal notice be served upon each of the
defendants within five days prior to the
hearing.
The filing of the petition attracted a great
deal of interest, especially among the city
officers. The heads of departments were at
first inclined to take the matter as a sort
OF joke but when they examined into it
they began to realize what a serious matter
1t is. The first consequence would be the
detiulting OF the interest on matured bonds
and the large amount of bonds that will fall
due in few months and for
which large sinking fund has
been created. Another thing would
be the depreciation of the city warrants in
which all of the city's expenses are paid. The
warnlnts have been lowering within few
cents of par for many years, and have not
been below 80 cents for a decade.
we will have no trouble controvertng
sheas figures" said one of the heads of de-
partments. THE assertion that the city has
true. Shea has included in this
statement all of the special as
sessment bonds, which are not prop
erly a part of the city's bonded debt,
although some of them have been guaranteed.
They are obligations against the property
of the citizens whose streets have been i'm
proved, and are as much a part of their per-
sonal debts as the mortgages some of them
owe on their houses. If Shea could succeed
In securing such restraining order it would
damage the clty'e credit and do mischief
that would be difficult to repair. The same
thing was tried once before, and the defense
of the city was held to be good The finan-
cal status of the city is better than it has
been for many years and Is constantly i'm
proving. Taxes were lower last year than
they We're ever before and they will be still
lower this year. Comparative statements
show that the city taxes in Council Bluffs
are lower than n a majority of the towns
and cities of the west We made some Bad
mistakes with cedar block paving. but so did
other cities. The taxpayers have no occs-
sion for special complaint, not so much as
the SALON keepers OF the city have against
Mr., Shea and no one has any occasion to call
for an injunction"
Inquiry at the city offices disclosed the
fact that about all of the warrants for the
months expenses have been drawn and
signed, and Auditor Evans thought he could
manage to get the remainder of them out
before the 18th inst.
IN I Ra1n 6rs ~,