Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-11-09
UNEQUAL TAXATION
Outside Districts Expect Improve meDts inc Same as IDSide.

Who's to blame for the trouble now existing in Waterbury regarding the inequality of taxation? This is a question you hear every day, and while there isn't any mystery about 1t at all, few care to even point in the direction where the trouble lies. When the present system of taxation was talked of it was explained that as soon as property owners ill the outside districts desired public inn provements the preliminary step would be to come into the full tax ation district and then get such im- provements as the city makes in any part of the town. In order that this change could be made without leg islative amendment it was agreed that the whole matter should rest with the people themselves, and with that end in view the following char ter amendment was passed on recom- mendation of the aldermen:
 Section 12.-Whenever twenty-five electors residing in any one of said school districts shall petition the boardN of aldermen of said city that the school district under the full Jurisdiction of the second district here tofore described, so that the persons andproperty within said school dis trict may secure from the govern ment of said city the same benefits and be subject to the same obligations as persons and property within said second district, said board of alder mer, after due hearing, shall fix a day on which all legal voters resld- ing within the limits of said school district may vote upon the question whether they are in favor of or op- posed to said petition. And if on said day majority of the votes cast within said school district shall be found in favor of having said petition granted, said board of aldermen shall grant the same and make an order that the said school district, together with its inhabitants and property, shall thereafter be and remain under the full jurisdiction of said second district, and such order shall have the same force and effect as if it formed a part of this act, and said school dis trict shall then be deemed to have been abolished as a school district"
 This section will be found on page 90 of the City charter and was read perhaps, by everybody who takes any '. notice of such things, and yet nobody ever heard it mentioned in the dis cussions that have taken place at city board meetings until it cropped ur the other evening. But this is not what we started out to talk about Under existing. conditions the inside district is taxed too heavily, while the outside is not paying enough. When $50 is appropriated for improvements in the outside district $45 of that sum is raised in the inside. Is this right No, of course it is not. Well then whose business it Is to apply the rem edy, the people who are profitng by the evil or the sufferers? You may say those on the outside never vii come in of. their own volition. Is that 7. so? Just Stop giving them more than they are paying for and see haw soor I. they will come forward and ask tc he taken into the second district SC that they may be in a position tc demand as their right. sewers. side walks, police and fire protection water. light streets and so forth. Ii this isn't done it is not likely that property owners in the outside vii ever ask for a change. Why should they? Whose business Is it then tc right the wrong? It is an easy mat ter to answer the query. It is up tC the city fathers, not to the people or the outside distIict and the longer Il is deferred the more difficult it vii be to get anybody to move in tho matter.