The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1905-05-05
The Tax Budget.

Just at present the probable actions
of the common council are Of more than
ordinary interest to Owosso citizens.
The amount Of taxes which will be as
sessed on Owosso property and which
will have to be paid by Owosso taxpay-
ers during the coming year will be
largely determined by Owosso alder
men within the next few weeks. The
annuarbudget in other words will be
passed upon by the council at some
meeting this month.
1t would certainly seem, on the face
of things that the city was in good
luck this year. Without considering
the attitude of the mayor, the member
ship Of the. council should of itself be
assurance of every possible effort to
keep the budget for the current year at
least as low as that of last year and at
the same time to take care of every
bond as it falls due. 1t will be remem-
bered that one Of the members of the
present council ran for the republican
nomination for mayor, and later for the
office of mayor on the republican ticket,
on a well expressed platform calling for
these very things, viz, reduced bud
get, and the payment of every bond
when il comes due. If this alderman
was sincere then in his wishes for the
welfare of the city, and THE TINES has
consistently maintained that he was
and is sincere in his stand upon this
platform, then there is no one in the
council more entitled to receive the
credit for the councils stand FOR the
same principles now than is Alderman
Rigley. But that is not all Of the matter
Party loyalty to MIR. Rigley, leaving out
every other consideration, would re-
quire that every republican member of
the council stand by this platform, as
expressed by Alderman Rigley, fully as
much as it would had he been elected,
and as though he were sitting in the
mayors chair today. The platform
was good one, and, THE TIMES re-
peats, it believed in Mr.. Rigley's SINGER
ity in standing squarely on it. But 1t
is an equally good one to work on
throughout the present year, and will
be an equally good one on which to
make a campaign next year. In fact it
is hard to see how any friend of Mr..
Rigley could do else than support it
with his best efforts and thereby help
give the lie to those who, during the
campaign asserted that it meant moth.
ing more than an empty bid for votes.
1t is now up to Alderman Rigley, but
more especially to his friends in the
council, to show the citizens of Owosso
that the plank for reduced budget
was no empty catch phrase, but plank
which stood for something which the
citizens of Owosso need and desire.
THE TINES sincerely hopes that in this
matter every member of the council
will work for the interests of the entire
city-they owe it to themselves and to
their constituents. The republican
members owe it to their fellow member
Alderman Rigley in addition to this
while Mr.. Rigley not only owes it tc
his constituents and to himself, but to
the loyal friends who stood by him in
every part of the city, and affirmed and
re.aflirmed their belief in the thorough
honesty and absolute sincerity of his
declaration of his platform. The hold
ing down of this years budget will be
no small help to the republicans Of the
city in next years campaign.