Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-09-17


Press submits a timely and pertinent
question in relation to our city finances,
as follows
To the Editor of The Free Press
l see that the board of aldermen at
their meeting last Thursday voted to au-
thorZe n loan of so. 0OO to pay accrued
the treasurer must have taken in about
500. 900 in taxes in the forty days proceed
ing the 18th of August, one wonders what
was the necessity of paying interest at
time when the city seems to have had
on hand a large amount of cash availa-
BILE for present uses. My interest in the
matter is that of a taxpayer.
September Ia.
1nasmuch as this question has already
suggested itself to other taxpayers, it
may be we'll to devote some space to a
consideration of the present status of our
municipal finances, together with a
glance at our monetary outlook. We
learn from City Treasurer L. C. Grant
that when the bulk of our CITY taxes had
been paid on August II, the treasury ow-
ed the sum of 100000. the greater part
of which had been borrowed from the
bank from time to time in accordance
with votes of authorization like that to
which our correspondent refers. Bills
accruing during July and August had
already been paid out of the proceeds of
the city tax received; but from the time
when we began to borrow last autumn
up to the beginning of July the city had
been doing business on the credit sys-
tenn.
OF the 500, 900 taxes levied by the asses
sors only $4,000 has not been paid in
1t will be necessary to borrow for the
payment of most of our municipal ex-
penses from now until taxpayers begin
to pay their taxes next summer. Certain
sums will be realized from assessments
for street and sidewalk improvements al
ready paid for by the city and from
water taxes. but the aggregate of income
from this source will necessarily be small
as compared with the total amount that
must be expended for various purposes
by the city before the next municipal
taxes are due.
The fiscal year ends December 81, and
the proceeds of the city tax and the in
come from various other sources should
meet our municipal expenses up to that
date. In view of the fact that we have
already begun to borrow, it is evident
that it will require extraordinary precau-
tions on the part of different members of
our city government to avoid a large def
cit. All of the departments have been
using money fast, and the cost of the new
poor farm has also helped to hasten the
necessity Of borrowing money. 1t is to
be borne in mind, however that the date
OF our first municipal loan for current OK
penscs is not much earlier than last
year
/ The present condition of affairs is due
| in part to the fact that there is n sort
of grab game between the different com
mittees of the board of aldermen to do
things in their own department regard
less of the welfare of the city as a whole
"a consideration which emphasizes the
need of a department of public works
which can equalize the expenditures ac-
cording to the actual necessities of the
city in various directions. This does not
apply Of course to the largely increased
expenses in the police department or in
other directions for which the mayor holds
responsibility.
1t is evident that thorough reform
ought to be instituted in the management
Of our city finances, 1t is hardly a wise
policy for the city to pay large interest
account running into thousands of dol
lars each year for money to liqudate
current expenses, when we might pay as
we go. Then again after the city fathers
have decided to have a definite tax rate
which they know will raise a certain sum-
they should not appropriate money, which
must be borrowed and thus createan over
draft. Every department should be held
strictly 10 the sum allotted to it for the
years work, If the mayor or any alder
man adopts n policy different from this
the taxpayer will be certain to hold the
offender to strict account.