The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-12
CITY FUNDS ARE
$5,O00,000 SHORT
Expert Accountants Discover a Most
I.amentable State Of Affairs
in Chicago.
The City Has Been Illegally Deprived
of Millions Within the Past
Thirty Years.

Chicago, Dec. 12.-Misappropriat
of trust funds; non-payment in some
cases and double payment in others;
bookkeeping either wiIfully or care
lessfy bad; ignorant or careless when
not absolutely criminal management,
all resulting in a present deficit of
over $5,00O,O00, such is the indictment
brought against the management of
the special assessment department. of
Chicago for the thirty years after the
fire.
The charge is made by the firm of
Haskins & Sells, expert accountants,
in the report of their two years work
Investigating the department.. The
report. was made to Mayor Harrison
and Controller Mccain yesterday.
It shows where the money, has gone
which ought to-, have been paid long
since to property. owners in the way
of rebates. how there have been no
rebates. when rebates. should have
been granted on account Of the fail
ure of the city to pay its own share
of the work, and how, in some cases,
the city paid twice and helped out
favored property owners accordingly.
It generally discloses a condition of
public affairs extending over three
decades which arouses wonder how
any public improvements were made
at all.
Since 1871 the city of Chicago has
wrongly appropriated from its special
assessment fund $5,O44.219. This is
money which ought to have been paid
to property owners in the form Of re-
bates, or represents overcharges when
their property was improved. The
items which can be classified under
the head of 'Iost, strayed or stolen"
are as follows: To fund .W;;'' $685.
IA. public benefits $1,744,347; over
payments, $1,543,557; balances or un-
paid rebates appropriated by the city,
'S70,571; total, S., 044, 219. Out of this
canmorally, if not legally, be sub
age of that amount in the special as
sessment funds of the various towns
when they We're annexed, and which
the city assumed. Lake owed $60,7
of this and. it's officers conveniently
lost or destroyed their books.
The report of Haskins and Sells
covers the period from Oct. 9, 1871,
to April /, 1901, during which time
4,292,086 individual assessn1 ents We're
made and s95,488,985 was put into
collection. OF what was collected but
$46,850,375 was paid to contractors
for work actually done. OF the re-
mainder, 19,930,102 was returned to
property owners in the form of rebates
and abatements,a and 11,048,328 was
paid to the city for various reasons.
A great part of the difference be-
tween the sos ,488,9885 the warrants
called for and the t$78,943,542 actually
disbursed is due to the loss in or cost
of collection, one item of $632,692 rep
resenting the money which seven sue
cessive county treasurers have taken
from the fund during these twenty
years as commission for receiving the
money. They made an average of over
see, 200 each out of it,. The rebates
due to property owners April 1, 1901,
representing cases where the money
collected exceeded the cost of tn work,
this $4,000 has been paid on this
account since the accountants began
their work two years ago.