The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-09

Friday threshed this matter out at
great length, but arrived at no definite
conclusion as TO a remedy. The only
thing that can be done now is to have
the attorney draw another form of
warrant for the city council to consider
Monday evening. After these are
printed and submitted to the auditor, il
win be up to him TO draw them up in
favor of the various claimants, Perci-
val, Birch, Moran and Kennedy. 1t
will mean that about $3.50, 900 worth will
have to be issued to clear up the in
debtedness.
1t is very probable that the auditor,
when il comes down to issuing them,
will object on the very sufficient
ground that the city has no funds with
which to meet these obligations. OF
course. they can be sold at the banks
at discount of from to 10 per cent,
as they represent lien on the prop
erty which has been improved and the
city guarantees the collection, but new
ertheless the banks well know that the.
city cannot possibly redeem them now,
and that 1t will be a long time before
its finances are in such shape that any
thing can be done toward reducing the
by actual payments.
Near End of Resources.
As has already been stated, the city's
general fund at the close of business
May 81 showed a balance of s102, 000 OF
this amount fully $4,000 is now due
contractors for the payment of the
city's portion of public improvements,
another S34, 900 belongs in the contin-
gent fund and cannot be touched for
this purpose; $4,000 is due three North
Main street property owners in pay
ment of judgments secured against the
city for change of grade, and the re-
mainder. $4,000, is left to run the rest
of the city government on until the
taxes come in in the fall. In this con-
nection it must be taken into consider
alton that the monthly receipts of the
general fund amount to about $4,000,
mostly coming from licenses, rentals,
etc, This, however, will not help much
when the final reckoning comes.
All the members of the council know
that the city is in a bad way financial
ly, but few viii acknowledge it. Ac-
cording to the way Councilman Fern
strom figures, the city is Tin the hole
about $4,000, and others outside the adj
ton clique figure the same
way. The reports they claim have been
juggled to show balances which do not
exist. They do not charge dishonesty,
but simply the manipulation of figures
for political purposes.
The new law, which regulates tine is
suance of scrip and warrants. and pro-
vides that warrants can be exchanged
for outstanding scrip under certain
regulations, is the one on which the
council must bank in doing anything
toward alieviating existing conditions.
Warrants and Scrip.
The difference between warrants and
scrip has been the subject of some dis
cuSsiOn, Warrants are issued against
special improvement assessments in the
sums of 81 600 each. Each warrant has
five or ten coupons. according to the
amount of installments in which it is
paid by the property owners, and each
coupon but the first bears per cent in
tereSt. Warrants are convenient to
handle and are a lien on the abutting
property. The time of payment is def
mite and certain.
Scrip is issued against each individual
piece of abutting property, and only
III the amounts owed by that certain
tract for the Improvement The
on each piece of scrip differ
and it is redeemed at any time the
property owner wishes to make his
payment. The interest is per cent
In comparison with warrants the time
Of payment is uncertain and the scrip
is hard to handle and, therefore the
banks will not accept it except at a
large discount.
. Contractors natUi ally prefer warrants
as the discount is not so large, and be-
cause it is easier to dispose of them.