Waterbury Democrat., 1902-05-22
TOWN SCHOOL TAXES.
Constable Perkins Busy Serving War
 rants on Delinquents.

1 V " ~ toSt1O%ftl ! E1<A A1h,s
 1 Constable Perkins Busy Serving War rants on Delinquents.
 There seems to be something wrong 1 in the system of collecting taxes in the town school districts, and it ought to be remedied before another year passes. Already foreclosure proceedings have been taken against several people in the Simonsville district, and folks ln the other districts are in trouble, too, and all over what appears to be the re suit of a misunderstanding. Besides this many are being made to pay out rageous sums in settlement for claims which they allege they had no knowl- edge of until the constable called their attention to them. In many instances l.property owners have planked down anywhere from $20 to $24 in settle ment of bills ranging from a quarter to dollar. The people say that sys, tematic effort is being carried on by the collectors to conceal the fact that tax has been levied until after the law date has expired, and then the coli lectors and their attorneys get together and ''soak'' them. The ones who are getting it in the neck feel aggrieved,
 
 see no reason why they should find fault. As rule the parties bounced onto are people who bought property in \ the town school districts during the past few years and thought that SO l long as they paid the taxes assessed against them by the town and collected by MT Thoms that that was all. They I never dreamed, so they say, any way, mat there was such thing as a school district tax, but there is no doubt upon their minds about it now. They have round that out to their sorrow, and as we are told that bought experience is the best kind. provided it is not too dear, probably the thing is worth all it cost.
 In most cases, all so far as we know. Attorney Wood is doing the legal work This Is nothing against the attorney That's part of his business, and as the service is perfectly legal there is no reason why anyone should rail at him. The blame, if blame there be resfs with the collectors and the prop- erty owners, that is, provided one takes no stock in the insinuation that the col lectors try to hide the fact that q tax mas been levied, which. of course would throw all the odium on their shoulders. But let. Us take what one would consider an honest view of the situdtion and assume that the taxes .,i aI ie'ied as the law provides and that l,e coiiectofs announce a time and place Where these taxes shall ba ra- tS. ana some Tail to see the notices. .nen wno IS at fault? The bills remain ulipaid, .ll. ana everybody who knows any, .ulns apout the character of the men | WHO make ,nt.tees IS aware that they are fellows I who cannot be trifled with so tbo+ o,,o can see that the collector is obIioed +o Toe the mark. He may be ana ,5S,,a1IS. ne Is, man who works in 2 facto,.y, and hasn't time to chase all ove,. +e1.,., 70 locate delinquents. and on +h;s count he finds it necessary to tu1n tbo unpaid bills oyer to a limb of tba 1a--s who forthwith proceeds fa taiso fan,' closure proceedings against tba norties ana then turns. the papers ova,. +o ,AS. constaDle with instructions to ma1-a seEfice or them. Any man o,. 1vonao,, whose abiding place cannot be discov cred by Waterbury consta bIo Noula De curiosity and it <. hoe likely that the town can ooast or such a freak. so fba+ af+a.. q iietle hunting around the constab1o uoes HIS part of the work and tban lnihgs are Tn shape for the mills to commence to grind. Generally naon1o settle the cases out of court and +han when they sit down to think +bo Wnoie matter over they cannot under sland now the constable found +bair audress and the postman couldn,t Later lhey learn that the collector ;s not opllged to send them bills and tnat perhaps they got no notice of inc A 'aA plii except what appeared in ina papers' paper would be nearer ,iobt LOT the collector does not do any moro advertising than the law says be sba1I It does not make any difference yvbo+ paper the notice appeared in. fba chances are a thousand to one that if would not have caught the eva of Those for whom it was intended consequently people who are ignorant or the law remain in that state until they are told where they are At Inv someone who knows all about if.
 III a conversation on this question with Attorney Wood a reporter learn ed from him that when he was collec- tor for the Town Plot school district he mailed tax bills to property owners half dozen times. but they failed to take any notice of them and as they Were not returned he had every req son to believe that they had received them. If they had not been received Dy the parties to whom they vera addressed they would have been re- turned to his office in accordance with the printed request to do so on the outside of his envelopes. He also stated that he never cared to take action agalnsI a property owner to collect taxes if he could get the money by other means and that he thought this was true of every other man who had to do with such matters. If this be true it is an easy matter to place the responsibility. On the other hand large numbers of people affirm that .hey never had any intimation that they owed such bills until they were ordered to appear in the district court at a certain date, so that. it is ex- tremely difficult to know what to say