The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-18
SERVICE POOR, TAXES HIGR
A LOUISIANA TOHN'S TEST or
WI NICIP4L WNERSHIP.

The t1tiIens Of Monroe. Once Tic.ied b>
tn GIOr, the Town Gained. Now Learn
ing the other side Only Town In the
state That can't Reduce Its Taxes.
New ORLEANS. Aug. 1.-THE little city II
Monroe. La. has just awakened to the discov-
cry that municipal ownership is a far more
serious and difficult problem than IL thought
when il stumbled into it u few years ago. Al
first everything was lovely n Monroe was
tickled by the praise and advertising IL got,
To-day it is seeing the other side.
A few years ago the town almost doubled
It's income by increasing the liquor license
from 500 TO 5000. The sudden and unex-
pected increase in revenLc enabled 1t to
make a number OF improvements ana
whetted its appetite for more.
The property owners we're induced to vote
an extra tax for improvements and TO issue
bonds to the amount Of nearly y per cent
OF it's assessment for the same purpose,
Municipal water works were established.
together with a municipal electric light and
power plant. municipal street cars and even
a municipal theatre for summer opera.
There was a temporary rain OF gold, during
which the salaries Of the Mayor, Aldermen
and othe. city officials were raised, so that
the budget Of this year Is nearly eight times
what 1t Was before the town started on its
policy Of municipal ownership.
At first everything ~prospered. 1t is only
now that the people Of Monroe are learning
the price they must pay for the towns i'm
provements.
The late Louisiana Legislature announced
a programme Of tax reduction for the State,
parishes md towns, rendered possible by
the recent great advance in values. The
State tax was cut down and 80 were the
town ,aXes. city councils being prohibited
from levying more than eight mills on the
dollar.
Monroe had 10 beg of. Not only is the
privilege of reducing the rate OF taxation
denied to it. but it has to ask for permission
TO levy a higher tax than the other Louisiana
towns, on the ground that it has spent 30
much on improvements and has issued so
many bonds that it cannot meet its obliga-
tions unless it is excepted from the standard
tax rate fixed for Louisiana towns.
Its present tax amounts to from s2t.Il
10 t25.O5 for every man. woman and child.
As negroes form more than half the pop
ulationl and pay little taxes. the heads OF
white families have to pay from $500 to $3.50
each a year for the pleasure OF having
municipal ownership. The revenue amounts
TO SIS per cent. on the present assessed
valuation OF the town and is supplemented
by a large bond issue.
The town gets for this a number OF mu-
~nicipally owned plants. II owns and oper-
ates it's own water works. but the rates are
higher than in any other Louisiana town.
says the Monroe Star. The water is no
better. being unfiltered and taken from the
Ouachita River.
There is a municipal lighting plant. but
the people pay more for Lighting than those
Of any other town Of Louisiana served by
private companies. and the same is true Of
the municipal street railway and of all the
other municipality owned and conducted
plants.
On the other hand. Monroe has a sewer
age system which. the Star declares. lis at
times worse than none." and a drainage
system which fails 10 drain. When a COM
plalnt was made by the people about the
grassgrown condition Of the streets and
cutters the administration explained that it
was impossible to do the street cleaning
because all the available city labor was
employed finishing the municipal street rail-
The cost Of the town government has !