Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1904-03-30
SCHEME TO SPEND MONEY.

The board of supervisors have dis covered a new opportunity to squan- der few thousand dollars of the tax payers money of this county. They are now advertising for proposals for the installation of hot water heat ing plant in the court house, the bids to be opened at two o'clock next Monday afternoon.
 It does seem as if there is no limit to expenditures which the board of supervisors will make. Not satisfied with the slO, 900 rock pile with which they have disdgured the plaza, and bonus of S15, 900 which they made to the United Verde Copper company, they now propose to squander few thousand for a heating plant for which the county has no earthly use.
 It is high time for tax payers to take some action to prevent this wan ton and useless expenditure of the public funds. With tax rate of over four per cent and the cutting down of assessments of mining property, and the laying awake nights apparently, studying up some new scheme to spend money, it begins to look as if the time were not far distant when the proper ty of the small tax payer would be confscated entirely.
 If the court house were to remain always as at present, without any ad- dition, there would be no excuse for going to the heavy expense of install ing hot water heating apparatus, and of the further expense of maintaining it. Under the present arrangement fuel is carried. to the different offices by the prisoners of the county jail, without any expense, while a hot wa ter heating plant would require the services of man to look after it ex- clusively and would consume an in- hnitelY larger amount of fuel to keep it going than is required at present with direct heat from the stoves.
 The Journal Miner has made par. tial canvass of some of the occupants of the court house, and has not found any of them clamoring for hot water heat. On the contrary several of them expressed themselves against the proposition under present conditions, and with the finances of the county in the present unsatisfactory shape.
 Two of the county officers at present have offices outside of the court house, and it is only question of time when another addition will have to be built. To arrange for the ex- tension of the heating system would then entail additional expense, and the partial alteration of plant in- stalled before that time.
 But above all the present facilities for heating are ample for the comfort of the occupants of the building rul the installation of haciivG plant would be practically a useless waste of money and would add additional expense to the county.
 If the proposition was to install heating plant in the plaza, to prevent those rocks from splitting open with the cold, or to protect the desert cac- tus from winters chilly blast, there would be as much reason to it as there is for putting it in the court house.
 It might be justified on the ground of spending good money to protect bad investment.
 Every tax payer who does not want to see this county bankrupted should enter a vigiorous protest to the board of supervisors against this proposed squandering of the public funds, as they are kept in hot water enough now about tax paying time.