The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-07-17
COMMISSION OPPOSED
Article Furnished by the l'anpayers,
COMMITTEES.

i NS~~S-~~~~.~~~~~o
Article 6 Of the constitution Of the
state OF North Dakota, reads as fol-
lows: THE legislative assembly shah
provide by general law for the organ
ization of municipal corporations, re-
stricting their powers as to levying
taxes and assessments, borrowing
money. and contracting debts, and
money raised by taxation, loan or as
sessment for any purpose shall not
be diverted to any other purpose ex-
cept by authority OF law"
Section 2756 OF article is of chanter
80 of the revised codes of North Da-
kota, 1905, is the enactment. under the
constitutional provision quoted above
and reads as follows: THE city conn
lo'' ~Nnn at its first regular meeting
IN September, or within ten davs
} tllei al ter. levy tax for general mr.
: poses sufficient to meet the expenses
; of the fiscal year, and not exceeding
20 mills on the dollar of the assessed
valuation of property in the city. based
upon, and itemized as In the annual
! appropriation bill for the year and in
addition thereto, shall levy a tax for
interest and sinking fund as required
by this chapter, and also a sufficient
! tax for the payment Of any final iude-
: ment that may have been recovered
against the city and such levy shall
be forthwith, and not later than Sent 90
Terrified by the city auditor. with anv
levy made by the board of education
of such city for school purposes. to the
auditor of the county in which such
city is situated. Such levy shall he
! made in specific amounts. and the
lcounty auditor of such county shall
| extend the same upon the tax lists cf
| the county for the current year, in the
; same manner and with the same effect
/ as other taxes are extended, except
that the city taxes may be included
in one amount, and the school taxes
} in one amount, for each person or lot.
or parcel of land. The levy herein
, provided for may be made at the same
, meeting at which the annual appro-
! priation bill is finally passed, and the
provisions of law fixing the time at
or within which any act or proceeding
in the assessment or levy Of any taxes
shall be done or taken, shall be deem
ed and held to be directory and not
mandatory"
; Search the law known as the com
} mission act for the government of
: cities, prepared by the willy politicians
: for their own personal advancement
r and ends, and no where in that law
) will you find the provision quoted
| above from our present city charter,
yet the self styled citizens publicity
committee" in the first article, for the
! purpose of aiding the people of Fargo
t to vote intelligently upon the question
to be submitted to them on July %,
namely: Shall Fargo be governed by
a commission, instead of as formerly
by a mayor and board of aldermen p
published in The Fargo Daily News of
July s, have the temerity, among other
things to say: "The difference there
fore, is not in the amount of power
granted to the governing body bur
in the manner in which the power shall
be exercised e. &. the limits upon the
amount of Indebtedness which tlay be
Incurred will not be effected by the
change and it will be as impossible for
a commission form of government 10
incur Indebtedness beyond the present
limit as for the present council to do
so.'
The assertion so positively made by
this self styled Citizens publicity
| committee" is not true, because no
limitation on the amount of indebt-
edness or levy of taxes, can be found
in the commission act, and the omis-
sion of it, no doubt, was intentional by
the author of the law, and his conferee,
who approved the law. The first thing
these willy politicians to do, If they
were to succeed in building up a ma
chine for their own personal advance
ment and ends, was to provide for
handsome salaries for the commission
ers, under the law; of course. in their
eagerness to do this they did over
Hook the above quoted constitutional
provision, and its omission from the
| law undoubtedly renders the law alb
solutely void. hence, you find the pro-
vision of the law quoted in our first
article, providing that the commits
Isioners shall have and do have the
lpower to fix their own salaries Even
the moderate salaries mentioned in our
first article increases your taxes 10
Iper cent over and above what they
were in 1908, but there being no limi-
tation on the amount the commission
ers may fix upon for their salaries,
larger amount determined upon for
their salaries, of course, increases your
taxes accordingly.
! Did that walking encyclopedias of all
knowledge. ancient and modern, and
/ then some, with 'idees" on tax COM
missions, and a firm belief that all
church school, public library and
charitable properties should be taxed,
County Auditor Arthur G. Lewis have
in mind. that there was no limitation
| in the amount of taxes that can be
levied and assessed, when he insisted
that the amount of drainage taxes
for the big slough drain should be |
raised by one levy on the property OF
the people of the city of Fargo, against |
the judgment and advise of the drain |
age commissioners?
Do you, Mr.. Taxpayer, know, that by |
that act OF County Auditor Lewis, city |
taxes will be increased in the year
1909 about Is per cent over and above
what they were in 1908?
You will know 1t. when you go ap
and pay your taxes.
But the commission act, as approved /
by County Auditor Lewis, does provide |
for publicity" c. &. the publication
four times in the year, of the city |
treasurer's statement instead of two |
times as now provided by law. Is not |
that enough for Mr. Lewis to advocate |
the adoption Of the commission law?