The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-23
COMMUNICATIONS.

ST Paul, MINI, April 9, 1902
Bernard Zimmerman, ESQ. President
Board of School Inspectors
Dear Sir: in response to YOUR favor of
the Sth inst, to Mr.. Markham relative to
the status of the money appropriated to
the school accommodation fund.-" which
has 1een handed to me for reply, l beg
+ TO advise you that this department is
this day IT. receipt of the papers relative
to the contracts to which you refer. In
accordance with the conversation had
with you and the mayor some days since.
IN Wn1ch you TWO gentlemen suggested
that as the school purchasing committee
YOU had awarded the contracts referred
to, and that the papers would reach this
o!hce for the preparation of the formal
contracts. but that before they were
drawn you would prefer that this depart
Inent undertake an investigation of the
condition of the various accounts of the
school fund, l have prepared myself in
advance to comply with that request
The provision of the charter, under
which you gentlemen are assuming to
act, and which is found in Sec g. of
Chapter XII. after providing for a report
from the Board of School Inspectors to
the Mayor, to be submitted on or before
the first day of June of each year, IN
which the Board is required to Estate
the NUMBER OF slttlngS for school chill
dren in the various public school buildings
and in the high school building of said
city, and whether or not in their
judgment any more sittings are required
lOI Tie ensuing year, ana II, III In6lr ODln-
ion, additional SittingS are required, they
shall state in what particular locality Of
the city building may be erected that
will accommodate the largest number of
children for whom provision is not al
ready made and specify as near as they
may be able, what the cost of purchase
or condemnation will be of a suitable
site for a school building, as well as
the cost of a suitable building to be
erected thereon, is as follows: 1.-THE
Common Council SHALL whenever the con-
diticns of the funds derived from the
school tax levied and collected, as pro-
Vided by law, or whenever any other
fund in the City Treasury is available
for such purpose, thereupon by a three
fourthS vote order the Mayor and Pres
1dent of the Board of Education to pro-
coed to obtain such a site and erect a
suitable building thereon in accordance
with plans and estimates to be provided
by the said Board of Inspectors My
investigation, made at your request of
the conditions of the funds derived from
the school tax levied and collected, as
provided by law has yielded me the
following informatiOn: The tax, which
IS now in the process of collection
through the County Treasurer's office. is
that which was levied for the year 1901.
and so far as it has to do with providing
for the revenue of the public schools
of this city we must ultimately refer
to the budget prepared by the Confer
ence Committee in November of 1900 as
lnodlhed and adopted by the Common
Council in December of that year, upon
which the tax levy itself was based in
January of 1901 This tax levy is set out
IN detail in that certain resolution of the
Common Council of this city, known as
Assembly File No. 5637, approved Jan
uary TO- 1901, and published in the official
paper on the next day. BY reference to-
1t you will find that the total of the tax
!e ened Tor School purposes for the year
1901 was $343.200 A reference to the
ninth item of the Midget upon which
this tax lew h1SQH
the total estimated expenditure for
school purposes for the year was S672. $50
an increase of. over $25O,000 over that for
the year previous. and of this total
amount $1O7 $50 was "for school sites and
new buildings to be erected thereon .
Tor general maintenance purposes $3.50 0GO
and to these two are added separate
item for repairs amounting to SIS 600
The funds with which the public school
system under the charge of your Board is
operated, are derived from several
sources, as YOU know. According to the
provisions of law which were in exist
cnce at that time. it was possible to lew
a tax of four mills on the dollar on the
assessed valuation of the taxable property
within the city, and the full amount Of
this tax was levied for the year 1901. The
Comptrollers estimate of the rate per
cent in which the school tax should be
eXto rded TO produce this full sum of $343.-
200 was four mills. When the tax levy
reached the County Auditor, however.
that official, assuming the total valuation
of the taxable property within the CITY
limits to be $SS,249,9 73 levied a tax for
school purposes of but three and 89-1O0
mills. Had his estimate of the total as
;sessed valuation of the taxable property
been correct, this would have produced
$343,292 SO IN taxes to be devoted to school
purposes. The true valuation upon which
the tax should have been extended, how
ever, after deducting exemptions. was
approximately $S6 $4,000. The result is
that the total Of the school appropria-
by just the amount that 11-100 of a mill
would produce on the total of the
assessed valuation and by four mills
total Of that assessed valuation
and the total as it was assumed by the
County Auditor to be.