Omaha daily bee., 1898-11-18
TREASURER CALLS FOR HELP
Present Force Unable to Collect Personal and
Special Taxes.
COLLECTOR COULD SAVE CITY LARGE sum
shirkers should Receive Personal
Nisitntion-Some Feeling thnt
Present Jerks should DO
the Work.

thousands OF dollars more in taxes will
be collected annually by the city treasurer's
office IL one more man is added to the force
is the proposition that City Treasurer Ed
wards has presented to the members Of the
city council. by investing SIS a month or
5000 a year in such q man the city would he
the gamer OF some thousands that it cannot
get now under the way things are going
This is the way that the city treasurer
responded to a complaint made recently by
Councilman Burnley. One day the council
man discovered that he owed some delin-
quent personal taxes which were drawing
interest. why did you not send me notice?
You know I would have paid the taxes at
once" asked the alderman. Perfectly true"
answered City Treasurer Edwards, but I
have no man that can spend the time to send
out notices." ct. .
For over a year now the city treas
urer has not sent out notices
to, property owners of the time when the
taxes become due. This has little apprecia-
BILE effect upon the taxes that are assessed
in the annual levy upon real estate, for
property owners know that they own real
estate and that they must pay their taxes
each year or else in time they will find their
property flying away under tax sales. Con-
sequently they keep themselves posted upon
the time when such taxes fall due.
1t Is different. however. in the cases Of
taxes that are levied for special improve
ments. such as paving, and of personal
taxes. Property owners keep TO track OF
the former and usually find finally that their
taxes are far delinquent and they must
pay considerable interest. And citizens
! generally do not find such great pleasure
in paying personal taxes that they come
to the treasurer's Office to find out what
their tax is. The consequence that a large
amount Of personal taxes are never paid.
How II should he Done.
II cannot tell you just what proportion Of
personal taxes are being lost to the city, but
1t is large" says Deputy Treasurer Fead.
1--WE arc preparing a statement regarding
this which we will present to the city coun-
Gil. Not only do people utterly fail to pay
taxes because it Is not called to their at
%tention, but others deliberately shirk them.
Then another loss comes from people who
are taxed, but leave the city without pay
ing the assessment. The consequence Is
that good taxpaying citizens pay the money
to run the city, while the shirkers succeed
in getting away scot free.
Here Is the system that ought to be
employed. One man should attend to the
WOTh. ne SHOulu SeUu Oul HOllCtS Wueu iii
taxes become due and If they are not paid
in voluntarily he should go out t. collect
them. In the case of personal taxes, he
should keep right on the heels Of the delin-
quents and II necessary take out a distress
warrant to seize their goods II they do not
! pay. In this way people could not get out
OF paying the taxes nor leave the city
| without doing so.
This tax collector could spend leisure
moments In still another way. This is in
collecting or compromising taxes that are
long due and are being carried over on the
books. There are some 81, 900, 900 delinquent
taxes never paid that run back for years
One-half Of this amount is collectible. BY
this / mean that $500, 900 of this delinquent
tax may be collected on a basis Of so or
rs cents on the dollar. I believe 1t is good
business policy to take so cents il you can
not get 81"
The matter has been referred to the
finance committee. On one point the
council comedies with City Treasurer
| Edwards in another 1t is not so unani-
! mously with him. Said one councilman:
81 am with the city treasurer when he
says that notices of taxes should be sent
out and that a tax collector should be
detailed to dog the shirkers. But I differ
with him when he claims that another man
must be added to his force to do the work.
In my opinion the clerks in that Office could
do considerable more work without hurting
themselves a bit-enough more to enable
city treasurer. That is the way l feel abou.
this matter and that is the way 1 will talk
about it when the matter comes up in
comDoittopp