Omaha daily bee., 1900-01-18
Howelps Anti-"Kawf' cures coughs, colds
TWO DECISIONS OF INTEREST.
Deal with the Questions of Electric
Lighting md bond Issue. =

| The supreme court of this state handed
down Tuesday two decisions which are of
vital Importance to this city. One was the
ruling in the Des Moines municipal electric
! lighting plant case, and the other the de-
cision in the Cedar Rapids municipal bond
case. Both are Of peculiar interest to the
people of Council Bluffs, as the city had
recently been contemplating letting a con-
tract for a municipal lighting plant and be-
/ cause the Cedar Rapids bond case bears di-
rectly upon the issue of bonds recently
authorized by the city council to take up
the outstanding general and water fund war
rants for the purpose of placing the city
or cash basis.
In the first case the supreme court holds
that city practically cannot enter into a
contract for the erection of a municipal
plant which imposes on the city liabilities
in excess of the constitutional limit Of
debt In the case at bar the contract pro-
vided that the plant should be paid for in
I installments, and at the conclusion of the
! term covered by the payments the plant
| should become the city's property. This
was the samo proposition that Alderman
Casper tried to involve this city in. The
ruling of tho supreme court is conceded to
deal a black eye to all attempts of cities in
this state to obtain municipal ownership of
public utilities. The court in its ruling said,
in part:
1T Is generally held that future revenues
may be anticipated to meet contracts for
current expenses, but there is radical dis
tlpction between a contract to procure light
for a city and a contract for the construc-
tior OF an electric light plant and the ne
ccssity for tho plant would constitute no ex-
Cuse for the violation Of the constitution.
| Where the contract is for the erection Of an
! Improvement and the time of payment Is
! postponed to later date and no special levy
/ is authorized to pay for the improvement,
then the rule is we'll settled that the sums
to become due in the future must be taken
, into account in estimating the existing debt.
As a general rule a city may not anticipate
its general revenue to be created by a scheme
of general taxation The legislative intent
has been to place the city on a cash basis
and prevent the accumulation OF a floating
! Indebtedness. II is said on behalf Of the
, city that it did not oblgate itsolf to pay
! more under the contract for the plant than
it had heretofore been paying for lighting.
Such situation, however does not authorize
the city TO enter into contract for the con-
struction OF plant in violation OF the con-
stitutional limitation. The provision that
the city should rebuild the plant in case OF
CoGtructon by fire or otherwise could not be
enforced II when time for performance ar
rived the city was indebted 10 the const-
tutional limit"
The proposition made by E. L. Draffen and
the other Chicago bidders to erect an elec-
trio lighting plant in this city to be owned
in the future by the municipality was on
the same basis as the Des Moines contract
called for.
The decision in the Cedar Rapids bond
case is favorable to the issue OF the bonds
recently authorized by the city council
Judge Dillon OF New York, to whom the val
idity OF the bonds was referred, has been
holding his opinion back until the Cedar
Rapids case was decided, While the case
there and the proposed issue here are not
exactly analogous. still many OF the samt