Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-08


the tax levy for 1899 as determined by the
city council at its meeting last night. Sur
prlsing and unexpected as 1t may seem ow-
ing to the larger levy that has been talked
of, it will be no stranger to the taxpayers
than it was to number of the city faith
ers last night. 1t the result of little
trick worked by band of heavy taxpayers
upon the council by means of number OF
the counclmen and it was very successfully
engineered.
The hidden hand was not uncovered until
the opportune moment arrived. When Coun-
Gilman Mercer made a motion to go into
committee of the whole to consider the levy
the entire council acuuiesced without sus-
picion. No inkling of how things were to
go was given until Mercer AMI Stunt and
Lobeck and Mount bobbed up in succession
with motions to fix levies fo- the various
funds different from ones that had been
agreed to at the meeting of the night be-
fore.
II don't understand this" said President
Bingham. II thought we had decided upon
other figures last night
1t took until midnight to finally round the
levy into form, but when the work was COM
pleted it footed up but 20 mills instead of
the 2S or 20 mills that had been drawn up on
the night before. Three mills were knocked
off the general fund and the School Board
was given only mills These were the prin-
cipal changes although there were other
minor ones. Mount, Mercer, Stuht and Lo-
beck voted for the changes; Bingham, Bur-
mester and Karr against them. Burkley did
not vote because he acted as chairman, and
Bechel was absent. On the final vote on the
adoption of the levy the lines were the same
except that Burkley voted in favor of it, al
though he said that it was smaller than he
wanted to see it.
Hntched on the Quiet.
This new levy that was adopted was drawn
up at meeting of some of the heavy tax
payers OF the city and Councilmen Stuht,
Mount and Mercer that was held at the Ne
braska National bank building yesterday
afternoon. There the trick was outlined
that was so successfully worked. This meet
ing adopted a set of resolutions addressed
to the council and signed by j. H. Evans as
chairman and r. C. Patterson as secretary
These resolutions were taken up in commit
tee Of the whole after all the other business
before the council had been cleared away
They were as follows: a"rHF Ssh"
Resolved, That it is the sense of this meet
ing of taxpayers after investigating the mat
ter and interviewing the members of the
council and other public officials that the
total levy, including school fund, should be
kept down to "a mills If possible and ou no
account should be permitted to exceed 25
mills, including school levy We are further
of the opinion that the school levy should
not exceed mills and that the general fund
should not exceed 4 mills, and we endorse
the position of the council in reducing
special fund levies. We call attention to
the Increase in the tax valuation Of property
of nearly S2,00O,000 and urge the council to
restrict the levy as above set forth.
The biggest struggle occurred over the
school board levy. Councilman Stuht moved
that it be fixed at 21a mills. Lobeck moved
TO fix it at mills and Bingham wanted 3Ia
mills School Board Member Burgess was
called upon to state the position of the board
hut he had nothing more to say regarding
this except that the board had skgnifed
what 1t wanted. He desired to know how
ever who the heavy taxpayers were who
settled the levy. r. C. Patterson named
j. II. Evans, j. b. Kitchen, w. j. Broatch
G. M. Hitchcock, b. f. Smith, II. w. Yates
and NJ. T. Barlow among those present
Then Mr.. Burgess asked what proportion
of taxes they paid. Mr.. Patterson did not
know. Mr., Burgess then said that it was
big estimate TO say that they paid tenth
of the taxes. He asked then whether the
opinion of the payers of the other nine
tenths Of the taxes had been secured but
failed to secure satisfactory answer.
Gillian States the Case.
Secretary Gillian of the board said that
the only objections against the school levy
asked for by the board had come from men
wealthy enough to send children 10 parochial
schools and not from the poorer taxpayers
whose children attended the public schools,