Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-07-30

proposition brought to the attention c1
Council at the beginning of the year
by Mayor Sweeney. In accordance
with his recommendation that the city
debt be refunded at lower rate OF
interest, special committee was APP
pointed and circular letter was pre-
pared and sent out to bankers and
dealers in municipal bonds, reciting in
general terms what was proposed to be
done, and asking for suggestions and
informal opinions as to the probable
rate of interest. To these letters a
number of replies have been received,
and others are arriving from day to
day, they being generally favorable to
the idea that the city can float new
issue of rounding bonds at substan-
| tial saving in interest.
The original suggestion of Mayor
Sweeney was TO simply refund the
/ bonded indebtedness of the city, his
language in his annual message being
as follows :
LAS purely business proposition l have
taken up the present state of the bonded
indebtedness or the city and ind. the aver
age rate of interest on all loans to be
about 512 per cent; this on an Approximate
! indebtedness of $780, 900 amounts to S2l, 500.
This rate OF interest under existing condi-
tons considering the cheap rate OBTAINING
for money, the good assets of the city and
her future opportunities for revenue when
the water works improvements shall have
been paid, is much too high, and am
| firmly of the opinion that an entire refund
of the present Indebtedness of the city can
be effected at the present time upon a
basis OF not 10 exceed 312 per cent. am
lntrenched in this, opinion by the great
sums of money seeking investment, the de-
STABILITY OF such loan as the city would
desire to make and the present low rates
at which short time commercial loans are
made. | am, however, equally certain
that the citizens of Wheeling would not
authorize loan for other purposes than
the funding of the present Indebtedness
and thot only upon a strictly business basis.
Estimating that the city would desire TO
refund the entire $4,000, and that II could
be effected at rate of 312 per cent. OF an
annual saving to the taxpayers of $4,000,
neither would L advocate, nor do | believe
the voters would sanction any loan orGi-
nance which did not provide for the retife-
ment of the new issue of bonds cOmmenc-
ing with the first years A loan TO run
twenty-five years with privilege of re-
demption after the first year would entail
upon the city an annual redemption pay
ment of only $4,000, a sum $1,000 lass than
the city has been paying. The placing OF
the entire bonded Indebtedness of the city
in one loan is an admirable feature aside
from the saving in interest to the tax
payers.
II recommend that the Finance Commit
tee investigate as to the feas. Dility of such
loan and report to the next meeting of
Council"
This eminently proper idea has since
been changed so as to include the out
standing orders land as we'll the in
debtedness of the Water Board. and
this is where the proposition as it
stands will be unpopular A gentle
man, in discussing the matter yester-
day, said:
ITO refund the city loans at a lower
rate of interest is good business, and it
can probably be done at as low a rate
as 31a per cent. To tack on the Water
Board debt and the Outstanding orders
is bad, in this. that it recognizes as
lawful and proper the creation of debts
incurred without due process of law
and in defiance of law. The Code of
the State prohibits the creation of a
municipal debt without the consent of
the people, and specifies in what way
that consent shall be obtained. The
Water Board has created large debt
without such consent, and the city has
further incurred a debt in the shape of
outstanding orders without any provi-
sion whatever to take them up, in time
near or remote. That business is bad
enough, but now to foist those debts
upon Mayor Sweeney's refunding prop
osition and make the taxpayers re-
sponsible for them is setting very bad
precedent Open that door once, and
there is no telling where the city will
end. Relieved of its present debt, there
is nothing to prevent the Water Board
from creating a, new one of several hum
bred thousand dollars. say for stor-
age reservoir or for a filtering plant, or
any other thing it may desire, and we
have the present situation IN perhaps
an exaggerated form. The people
should be consulted about the creation
of debts, for they have TO pay them, and
the law is perfectly plain. / am heart
lily in favor of refunding the bonded
Indebtedness It's a good thing and
win save money. | am unalterabiy OPP
posed to recognizing either the Water
Board debt or the outstanding city or
ders in the form of bonds. The Water
Board created its debt, and is response
BILE for it, True, the Board may say it
had the authority of Council. but Coun-
ell has no authority to create a debt.
1t can formulate proposition and sub
NIT it TO the people. but it cannot au-
thorize a city department to incur
several hundred thousand dollars
of public indebtedness under the
guise of d contract which
prescribed a rental" for a term
OF years at so much per year, and then
expect the city TO shoulder the burden
in the shape of long time bonds, even
at a low rate of interest. Old Nick
has been whipped about the stump en-
ough in this city. and the sooner there
is a return to fair and square business
propositions, the sooner the people will
endorse proposed measures and the
better they will be pleased with the re-
suit. AS for the city orders. they
haven't a leg TO sand on II the Coun-
ell or officials have right to issue an
order for one dollar without funds to
meet it, they have the right TO Issue "a
million. To legitimiZe this sort Of
thing by taking up the orders with a
part Of the proposed loan comes pretty
close to compromising a felony. and the
people will never be parties TO it. Mark
the prediction, Keep 10 straight re-
funding proposition, and iuwili carry
Handicap it in the manner proposed
and il will fail, for even the attractive
ness of a low interest rate viii not save