The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-24
PROBLEMS OF
 QTY'S INCOME Finance Committee Try ing to Fill Hole. WILL LOSE s5O,OOo A YEAR Aldermen Are Already at
 Work. sevefai plans for Filling the Hole ia the Budget are Being plseussed-- Special Meetsns to cohnidsr
 the Plans.

with a loss of nearly $5o.o00 a year from tax receipts, through the advent of prohibition. staring them in the face, the members of the city council. particularly the Finance Committee of that body, has a trying situation to face. For weeks the members of the Finance Committee have been meeting at night to discuss the best and most feasable way of reimbursing the city for the soon to be absent liquor tax; every phase of the matter is being carefully gone over and discussed, but even now no direct plan oI suns.l.u.aoh ,.,a in licenses. the placing of higher lic- enses on other businesses or things, has been reached.
 The loss will not be felt for some months and to get things ready for the time when it will be felt is the main part of the problem to be dealt with, after q means of revenue has been de- cided on.
 Through the change of the municipal year from the. old dates, which began October 1st and ended September s0th. totthe new, beginning January 1st and ending December 31st. 1t has been ar ranged for the city to derive q reve- nue of nearly half year from the lid- uor tax.
 The new code does not allow a. ifc- ense schedule to be fixed to cover more than twelve months and since the change of the municipal year which Is now in effect the council cannot add the three extra months, October, Mo- 'vember and December. to the. new year for that would make fifteen months, three more than allowed by the new adopted code. The licenses now in use expire after September sDth. Thus flle three months have baen- thrown at the feet of the coun- ell, seemingly as gift of the gods. to tide over the time of financial enbar- rassnlent The proposition dealing with the case is to issue a license at forty or. fifty percentum less than that of the old entire year, or tacitly, allie ence that formerly would have cover ed six months, charging this rate for the three months because they are the best selling months Of the year, and because with the liquor tranic about lawfullyl to cease to exist. more will be sold to persons with an eye and palate to the dark times before them.
 Figures obtained from other states which went dry show that almost as much business was done in the last month or so of the business than any preceding consecutive seven months. and with the low liquor tax of Mont Komery the dealers will not feel that they have been harshly treated or squeezed by this probable action of the The whlalxey License.
 If the state Legislature allowed or provided for an income tax, the prob- lem before the Council. 1t is said, would be easy--eor instance, local case was cited where law firm are believed to receive an income of $5o.o0o year. and their taxes and license amount to si6 year. Not far from them merchant conducting a grocery business with an ape proximate income of $2.b00 a year paws nearly $500 in licenses and taxes. These cases were cited by member of the Finance Committee to show one phase of the problem with which they are faced.
 Among the several means the Coun- cil has of meeting the new condition is that of the allowed street taxation of S5 per head. The use of this means sof providing the city with money would solve the problem at once, but that it would work a hardship on many the Councilmen recognize, and are 10th to follow this method of financing. The tax would be applied to all, but to some it would come extremely hard and 1t Is safe to say this plan has been