Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-09
OPPOSITION TO TAX LEVY
Board Of Education Members Far from
Being Satisfied.
SAY THEY NEED MORE MONEY FOR SCHOOLS
Some Councilmen Contend That n
Cash Runs short 10 Can BE
Augmented ny Drawing
on General Fund.

The city council has determined that the
tax levy this year shall be 25 mills. but 1t
Ia not at all certain that the levy will be
at this figure. This statement is made pos.
sIble by the fact that two questions must
still be answered before the levy becomes a
law. "Wllf the mayor approve or veto the
levy ordinance Is one OF these questons
the other is. will the school board be sat
isfed with the levy set aside for st. or will
II appeal TO the courts for an additional
amount?"
Mayor Moores has not yet decided what he
Will do. The ordinance has not offcally
reached him yet and he knows nothing of the
levy except what he has seen in the papers.
In his conversations however, he intimates
that the sums set aside for some OF the
funds are entirely inadequate. but whether
the discrepancy Is large enough to cause him
to veto the measure he Is not ready to say.
What the Board OF Education will do is
another undecided question and will not be
settled until the members hold conference.
Members OF the board, however, are not
backward in saying that the school levy is
entirely inadequate With the comparatively
small sum that has been given the fund 1t
is said that the board will be deeper in debt
at the end of this year than 1t was at the
end OF 1898. The board is unanimously op-
posed to any increase in the floating in
debtedness.
I'VE we're willing to effect a compromise"
said one of the board members THE dis
trict court rendered judgment in our favor
10 the amount OF our Indebtedness, s159,OO0,
against the city. We asked the council to
levy for S1SO,OOO, which would wipe out
about one-third of this indebtedness-some
S53,000-the remainder being used for rum
ming expenses. The council has given us
but 100000, and II we remain content with
this and continue to run the school district
we will be about $50, 900 more in debt than
we are now. That is a plain statement of
the case What our action will be 1 can
not say"
Must Have Money for schools.
Attorney Lunt Of the board de-
clares that there is no question that the
board can compel the council to make a
greater levy. He says: ''It Is not the pur-
pose of the board to put an unnecessary
burden upon the taxpayers, but 1t has taken
the position that it should be supplied with
enough money to run the schools without
increasing the indebtedness. l have no
doubt that it could force the council to make
a levy big enough, not only to pay running
expenses, but also to wipe out 1883. 900 in
debtednees, for which it holds judgment
against the city in the district court.
Twenty days have elapsed since the decision
was rendered, and no appeal has been taken.
Therefore the city cannot go to the supreme
court
City Attorney Connell has given it as his
opinion that the board can force any sort OF
levy 1t deems necessary.
The levy is considered ridlculously low by
all city officials. The majority Of the coun-
ell are OF the same opinion, even those mem
bers who voted for it. The latter said in
explaining their votes that they knew
enough money was not being provided for
the various funds, but they were determined
to keep the levy down. Councilman Stuht
also stated that II any of the funds run short
they may be supplied out of the general
fund. This statement has been ridcued by
city officials for two reasons.
One of these is that any such action would
be in violation of the plain letter of the
charter, which has been frequently inter
preted by City Attorney Connell. The char
ter specifically states that no money may be
transferred from the general to the special
funds. second argument against Stunts
statement is that the general fund does not
provide enough for running expenses and
therefore there is no allowance for emer-
gencies for supplying the special funds
with money.
See Big Deficit.
1t is also pointed out that while the levy
for 1899 as proposed will net more money
than the levy for 1898, yet, as matter of
fact, the city will have a lesser amount OF
money to expend because big balance was
carried over from 1897. while a deficit was
carried over from 1898. 1t Is freely pre-
dicted that the city will find itself between
100000 and 100000 in debt by the end of
the year IL % mills is allowed TO stand
The 1898 levy "a mills and netted
s7s3 1Ss.07. Ten per cent of this amount
with the exception of the school levy. is
not available unden the charter. Couse-
quently the city could draw against but
about $4,000 of the levy. The
tax collections from levies OF past
vars, however, helped out considerably, as
the total tax collected amounted TO $749,-
629s1. On January /, 1898, there was a bal
ance in all the funds of sl53.5O3.26, so that
the city actually had 10 spend during the
ha ri lv