The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-02
LET TAX BOARD
 TAKE THE BLAME
Charities Department Shifts Burden of Prospective Deficit upon Appro.
 priating Body.
SINECURES SHOULD HAVE BEEN CUT
But Attempt to Keep Highest Tax Rate Lower Was Made at Expense of Poor -Snpt. Brennan Furnishes Board With Interesting Figures.

Not tamely will the Board of Chari- ties submit to the imputation that it's
 methods of doing business may be fairly criticised. Neither will it ad-
 init that its accounts are not kept
 properly. The members, following their meeting last night, had no hesi- tation in saying that the board can
 furnish an accurate trial balance with
 in a few hours of proper demand. The
 proof of the pudding is in the eating.
 The board a few hours before it met requested Supt. Joseph Brennan to fur
 n1Sh 1t with such a. statement, having
 special regard to the probable deficit
 likely to exist at the end of the year.
 This deficit will be somewhere be- tween 5000 and $20000. It will be about the amount of the cut which the ton of the Charities department last February.
 we object" said a member of the Charities board this morning, "to the automatic process by which castiga- tion is administered to us every time anybody feels ugly and doesn't know what else to do about it. We're going to shift the burden for the next short age and shift it now to the shoulders of the Tax Board, not because we want to get rid of it ourselves, but because the blame belongs there.
 ''The Charities department asked the Tax 6OarO TOT an appfOpr1at1on or $1O3, ,SS1-75, for the work of the present fiscal year. The board granted $93.- 702.sS. But $9,sS4 of this was to meet a deficit carried over from the prev ious year. The working amount for the year 1909-10 is therefore but $S3,- S1S.s4. or s2o,o12.s1 less than the de- partment estimated as necessary
 'The Charities department is merely the victim of the struggle to keep the highest tax rate known to the history hair wet oh The saving, instead of being made in what may be called the luxuries of the municipality, by the elimination of snaps, sinecures, and easy jobs, of which every city contains many, was mpliShed by the simple process Of skimping the poor.
 Doubtless there are some citizens who picture the persons who rely upon the Charities department for help as living upon quail and champagne. But public charity is cold and it is also 1im- ited. It would open the eyes of some of our people to see how small is the help that will carry a widow and her dependents through the year. There is no room to cut in this sort of thing. We wouldn't if we could, and the law let us if we would.
 '"The figures upon which the as sumption of a deficit is based are those represented by the expenses of operat- ing the department for April, May and June. In April this cost was $6, 761. .08; in May it was ss, ,309.S6; in June it was s5, S579 95, total for the three months of S2O BPS. .S7.
 "But the appropriation permits an average monthly expenditure of a lit tie less than 1,0O0, and this average is almost reached in three warm months when the demands on the department are much less than they will be dur ing the fall, winter and early spring months. The deficiency item is then based upon the known excess of the charges of the department in the cold season over it's charges during the warm season of the year. This excess warrants the conclusion that the def cit to be met by the Tax Board will be $20,e00 by February next. If it is less there will have to be a remarkable diminution of the de- mands upon the department"