Waterbury Democrat., 1901-01-05

Die who desired to express opinions on
 the consolidation bill. Chairman Hall
 presided and all the members were | present except Mir Goss The attend ance was large, and among the differ ent persons who spoke but one fa-
 vored consolidation as proposed by the committee. As soon as the meeting was called to order Alderman Cross said that he thought it would be q good idea to cali in q stenographer to take down what would be said on the
 matter of consolidation. so that the board would be in a position to make
 suggestions as might be offered in case there happened to be an improve l ment on what the bill contained. Alderman BlakesIee: We have the
 best stenographer in Waterbury right here.'
 Alderman Cross: "Who is he?" Alderman Blakeslee: s.The city
 clerk, MT Ryan. The best one in town''
 Alderman Cross: 'rm glad to hear
 that. We must raise his salary
 Mir Ryan: T hope you won't forget that"
 After coming to an understanding that the clerk would take notes, the
 meeting opened With the reading of
 a short review of the bill singed by the committee. James E. Russell, F.
 B. Rice, Daniel E. Ftzpa trick, Thom-
 as D. Barlow, John r. Kellogg.
 On motion of Mir White the report was received and ordered on file. Then
 Sheriff Mcdonald passed around print ed copies of the bill, which appeared
 to be in big demand.
 When Chairman Hall called for re-
 marks on the report of the commit
 tee. R. K. Brown stepped forward and after q brief pause said: I'm op- posed to consolidation. 1 have req
 sons for my opposition to the passage
 of such an act, but I do not think l ought to give expression to them at this time. I shall appear against it
 in Hartford.''
 Henry w. Tyrrell of Simonsville said that the bill contained all the ob jectionable features of the present sys- tenn and wanted to know why the townspeople could not De permitted to levy their own tax, collect it and at tend to their own affairs and let the city do the same. He objected to con- ferring power upon the mayor to ap- point the beard of assessors and the board of relief and contended that these offices should be filled by di- rect vote of the electors of the town. He thought, however. that if the peo- pie on the outside and the city people | could get together and talk matters 1 over the objectionable features of the bill might be elimina ted and that prob
 ably all might favor it under certain
 conditions. If the bill passes MT Tyr | rell hopes to see q polling district in l, ,Simonsyille.
 l.. K. Carter spoke at some length and came near getting into TOW with | City Attorney Kellogg over the schemes that were rGsorted to by Thigh priced city counsel' in order to | bring about the consolidation of the l school and city governments. At that | time, he said. q solemn promise was | made to owners of property ill the new
 district that they would not have to l pay more than half the rate of taxation | charged against those within the old | city line and after two years all this
 was to be forgotten and the people | taxed the same as thosa on the inside.
 He did not think this fair. because a large share of property in the annexed l district could not share in the benehtS that come from public improvements
 for years. and on this account he did l nOC DelltNc c IL DC tst-ASu AOA l them.
 Attorney Kellogg wanted to know
 what NIT Carter meant about the high
 priced city attorneys, and finally | forced Mr Carter to admit that this | promise of half taxes to the outside district was made to Senator Mitchell | by Colonel Burpee. Colonel Burpee.' | said MT Cart"r. told Senator Mitchell | that if the city ever tried to change | that system of taxation he would light 1 against it. but don't see him around | here tonight. I admit that Mir hel- | logg was not as active in the interest of that bill as Colonel Burpee but Mir
 Kellogg was there. I saw him at the ! hearing before the committee on cities and boroughs.'
 Mir Kellogg stated that he went into | the committees headquarters just the | same as many others had done who had no particular interest in that bill. John Buckley was of the opinion | that the tax in the annexed district 1 should not be increased for at least 1 ten years.
 l for about half an hour, in the course | of which be said some things in favor of consolidation and q great deal more | in support of half tax for the ann 7Xed | district, so called. He did not think l that the legislature would take very kindly to the broken faith on the part | of the city with the outside district l and believed that bill with such provision could not ba passed. lie saw nothing unusual in three rates of taxation. one in the old city. another in the new district and still another in the town. The speaker cited several instances where the same rate of taxa ton would work great hardship to many people, notably parts of Burnt Hill, where there are no improvements and not likely to be for the next cen l tury. During the discussion that took place between Judge CoweH and City | Attorney Kellogg it was shown that all the money the city received from the town last year was about S10oo, | while the city paid the town in the 1 peighborhood of S35.O00. Judge Cowell ! admitted that he is in favor of consolida- 1 ton. but added that he could not favor
 it in it's present shape. He thought l that the committee avoided the tax ! question purposely. believing that the | c1.5 orr,<,, vuo,Yld Drpfpr tO wreSflp with