The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-12-04

tnan the smaller municipalities.
1T can also be demonstrated thatwith
density Of population comes an increase
of valuations. and, therefore. that in a
city Of a large population. such as New
ark, the property is more valuable per
acre than in a smaller city, such as Or
ange and. therefore, the larger city
should be able to raise its necessary rev
enues upon a smaller tax rate than the
city Of Orange. For instance, the city Of
Newark has an area nearly eleven times
that Of Orange, yet its assessed vaiua-
tons are fifteen times as great as chose
Of Orange. II also has an area nearly
six times that Of East Orange, but its
valuations are almost nine times those of
East Orange, and property in East Or
ange is generally considered to. be quite
valuable. IN Camden County the city
of Camden has only about one-geyenth Of
the area of Gloucester Township. in the
same county. yet its valuations are six
times those of Gloucester Township.
sIf you take The amount of money
spent for the ordinary city departments
in each year by municipalities in Essex
County the figures will show that New
ark in most eases pays less per capita in
most of them than the other municipali-
ties in the county. with substantially
equal facilities. For instance, taking the
figures of this year from this years tax
budgets, the city of Newark spends less
per capita for the support of it's police
department than either East Orange or
West Orange, but it spends a little more
per capita for the support of its fire de-
partment than any other municipality in
the county; for streets. however. it does
not spend one-third as much as Mont
clair. per capita, one-haIf as much as
East Orange or West Orange, and con-
siderably less than Orange; for street
lighting it spends less than half as much
! as Montclair, or West Orange, per cap
ita. and considerably less than East Or
Orange or Orange pei. capita. while for
the support Of its poor it spends not one
third as much as West Orange, not one
Gf+b !, = ~ L.. AF.,,4.I, H.
less than half as much as East Orange
and but a little more than one-fourth as
much as Orange, For public schools
Newark spends less than half as much
as Montclai1 per capita, and little more
than half as much as East Orange and
a little more than Orange.
IF maximum rate is to be fixed,
why not start with a rate somewhere
near the ratio which prevails in the cit
les of size in this State, at, say. $3.50 in
stead Of attempting to compel such a rad
ical reduction of tax rates a one sweep?"
The Senator in his opening speech
spoke of the framing of the bill. and told
how it had been modified and changed.
He stated that the division, according to
population, was made up from data pub
lished in the United States Labor Re
port, showing the graduated scale of ex-
pense per. capita. He stated that all
lawyers in the room would agree with
him that no bill was practically correct
as regards classification of population,
citing many cities inhabited largely DUR
ing the summer seasons. but diminishing
during the period of winter He was not
entirely responsible for the classification,
he said, and was not willing to defend
that portion of the bill. Speaking of
Orange, he felt that if that city could
get along with $1.50 rate. possibly
Newark could. The Senator reiterated
a former statement, that Newark could
get along with per cent. if it assessed
according to law. These, he stated, with
the voting, were incidental points The
most important matter was:
shall the tax rate be Hmited?"
"Seventy-6ve per cent. Of the laws
passed by the legislature continued tie
Senator. ''were eitner reYisieais or amend
ments to existing laws. 1t demonstrates
that changes are made from year to year.
until the bills are made effective. and
then noYiees will go down and try to
further change them.p
At this point the speaker paid a trib-
ute to the Essex County representatives
to the Legislature, saying that all IN all
they were the best men, and Mr.. Lord
was among the nuInbr. In the State he
pointed out. there were valuations rang
ing from 10 per cent and up to 80 per
cent. Of the true valuations. Equal tax
ation affected individuals as much as it
did railroads. the Senator held
1t is generally admitted he eontin-
uer, that tile small householder is tax
ed pretty near the limit, and / know il
to be 4 rule that he gets assessed 50
per cent. OF the whole
BE spoke at length up0n the question
of personal taxation, claiming tllat if y
was among the number. In the State. he
be greatly lesSened. Senator Hdlery set
forth in nis argument that it would be 4
frraat 1farng.ft fszf. axx-