Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-08-19
THE COUNTY DEBT
Meeting Of Tax Payers Declared in
Favor Of Negotiating a
Compromise.
THE DEBT DECLARED LEGAL
Tax Payers Requested the County Commits
sioners to Appoint a Committee Of Five
or Ten to Arrange a Proposition
to Bondholders.

to Bondholders.
From fifty to sixty property owners
and of the county were in the
court house last evening in attendance
on the meeting of the board of county
commissioners, and discussed the action
that the county should take in regard
to the two suits already begun for SOL
500 and $57, 900 for coupons and interest
on refunding bonds. The commissioners
present were Hon. Charles w. Dudrow
and Hon. A. Maestas. Probate Clerk
Anatasio Romero acted as Translator.
Among those present We're Messrs. e.
l.. Bartlett, S. H. Day, r. j. Palen, A. r.
Spiegelberg, J. P. Victory, R.. c. Gort-
ner, George w. Knaebel, j. D. Hughes,
Levi A. Hughes, j. A. Wood, M. G. de
Baca, A. B. Renehan, w. M. Berger, j.
G. Schumann, Fred Mueller, w. s. Har-
roun, Arthur Seligman, Felipe Delgado,
Page B. Otero, w. E. Griffin, e. A.
Fiske and others.
District Attorney Gortner explained
the financial p~redicament Of the coun-
ty. He acknowledged the debt to be
legal, and said that the only two courses
open to the county are reputation and
compromise. If the county commission
ers decide to repudiate the debt and
| refuse to make the levy they can be
compelled to do so by a writ OF manda-
mus. They might disobey the manda-
mus and go to Jail with the attorney
who advises them to disobey the writ
for contempt of court, like the commits
sioners of a certain Missouri county,
who in a similar case spent years In
Jail. If the commissioners make a levy
to pay the deb the taxpayers might
refuse to pay the levy, but a possible
outcome would be that every piece OF
property in Santa Fe county would be
advised a compromise to be made as
soon as possible. In support of his
opinion that the county debt is lega
Mr.. Gortner quoted the case Of Pima
| Guilty, lA.t WIlooC uCpI CASSSNSN et>
4 per cent limit, was validated by con
gress, at first declared illegal by the
supreme court, but in a second suit was
declared legal by the same court in very
strong terms. Pima county is making {
compromise with it's creditors, and will
m~anfully pay off the debt. 1t was after
the first declaration of the supreme
court that the Pima county debt was IL
legal that the county commissioners o
Santa Fe county stopped paying inter
est on the bonds, but now that the Pins
county debt has been declared legal, tn
situation is quite different.
Solicitor General E. l.. Bartlett coin
cided with the district attorney in say
ing that the debt is a legal one. He SAT-
that only $500, 900 of the great indebted
ness was for railroad bonds; $50, 900 wa
for the court house, and the remainde
for other expenditures. He called at
tention to the fact that in 1895 the cit,
council of Santa Fe petitioned the coun
ty commissioners to compromise tn
county debt, and that Major r. j.. Pa
len was asked at that time to make
statement of the county's debt and as
sets. The first decision in the PIN
county case stopped further proceed
ings at that time. AS the Santa +
county debt is only one-half of h as
sessed valuation, the county cannot sa
like a bankrupt that it's liabilities ar
greater than its assets, nor can it as.
for a receiver. There is not a count,
west of the Mississippi that has no
overburdened itself with railroad bonds
and not a county in that vast domain
that has not at one time or other com
promised it's debt. Those commissioner
in the Missouri county not only spen
years, and finally the debt was compro
missed with the creditors. General Bart
lett said further that the Santa F
county debt is not only a legal debt, blu
also a moral and equitable obligation
While Pima county and the Missouri
county never got the railroads for whicl
I they issued the bonds and were clearl.
buncoed out of their money, Santa F,
got what it bargained for, the peopl
of the City of Santa Fe spending an ad
ditional 5000 in cash to get rail
roads. These two railroads, for fiv,
and thirteen years respectively, hav'
been the heaviest taxpayers in thu
county. The board of county commits
sioners has already put itself on rec
ord as willing to compromise. A go PEE
cent compromise with long-term bonds
can probably be made. Perhaps thu
debt can be scaled down to SO per cent
With the present Indebtedness, the
county's interest charges will amour
to over $4,000 annually. While some O.
the Santa Fe county bonds sold for Il
cents on the dollar, yet there are in
stances where they were sold at 1O7, ant
now belong to poor people, who invest.
ed their savings in them. In conclusion
General Bartlett advised the appoint.
ment of a committee to present a state.
ment of the county's financial condi.
ton to the bondholders and to seek
compromise OF the best terms possible
Commissioner Charles Dudrow sale
that the county's debt is an honest debt.