Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26

I
"It Is not possible to ascertain, even
| approximateiy, the total expenditures
| of the minor civil divisions IN 1sVo-9,
| and therefore I have estimated them
| conservatively at $6,0OO.0O0 Whlcn is
undoubtedly a good deal less thah
they really were. San Francesca -
| treated as a city, and not county
Tn +be total of $63. 900, 900 there is a
| duplication to the extent tnat the ap,
pOrtioned school moneys are reported
both by county and city, and there-
fore If will be safe to assume that
$50 600. 900 is approximately the correct
total. This would make SO 1-3 per cent
! increase In six years. as against, say
/ 25 per cent increase or populatloh'
before proceeding to discuss the
growth of our state expenses, let US
consider briefly both the county anu
i municipal statistics.
"TTnder our system, with no town
ships possessing organized local gov
| ernments, county expenditures are
necessarily large, but how large IN the
aggregate, few persons take the trou-
BILE to inquire, and, indeed. exact sCda
tistics of expenditures for the whole
state are lacking But the amount OF
taxes charged up for county purposes
and the rates of tax in each county are
reported to the controllers office. A
record of tax rates extending back TO
1871 shows that, from that year on the
county rates, in a majority or the
counties. gradually diminished down
to about 1890, which was turning
point. From that year there has been
a steady increase in the tax rates. and
since 1900 the increase has been rapid.
Enormous Increase Shown
"a comparison of county taxes
charged up for the last nineteen years
hot in 1901 thew amounted to
| S9,417,0 OIL and in 1908 to $24,201, ,SO5, an
increase of 157 per cent. But this in
! crease has been most rapid In the last
few years, 81 per- cent of it occurring
in the last eight years. In the ten
years between 1890 and 1900. the in
crease was only Al per cent, or half as
much. The following figures show the
total of county taxes charged up in
/ each of the last three years..
1906. .......... .$1s, ,124 ,602.37
1907 22, ,145 ,665.60
1908. .......... 24,201, ,8O5.21
I'm 1907 there was an increase of
$4, 000, 900, and in 1908 $2,000000. Those
figures included only county taxes
proper; if special school district taxes
were included the showing would be
still more striking.
"AIl of the counties participate In the In
crease, but it has naturally been greatest In
those counties which have been growing fast
est. In the ten years between 1893 and 1903
the taxes charged up increased 46 per cent
! in San Francisco county, 1876 per cent in
Alameda county, and 264 per cent in Los
Angeles.
Some of the other county increases
in the same ten years have been as
follows; Butte, 92 per cent; Colusa, "a
per cent; Contra Costa, so per cent;
Fresno, 1O2 per cent; Humboldt, 144
per cent; Mendocino, 43 per cent; Ne
vada, II per cent; Riverside, 107 per
cent: Sacramento. 14O per cent; San
Diego, So per cent; Santa Barbara, 147
per cent; Santa Clara, GA per cent;
Siskiyou, 104 per cent; Solano, So per
cent; Sonoma ia per cent; Stanis-
laus, 65 per cent.
County Averages Given
"In most of these counties there has
been some growth of population, but
not in proportion to the growth of ex-
penditure The following is the sim
pie average of all the county tax rates
for the years named (using the outside
rate, which includes road taxi: