The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-30

 INCREASE At Present Ratio Cost of Running City Will Dou-
 ble in Ten Years Half Million More
 Now Than in 1904 Principal Sufferers Are the Hard Working Artisans Who Own Their Homes The "Big Fellows" Manage to Have Their Interests Looked After By Faith
 less Officials

That the cost of running the city of Bridgeport will double every ten years is the consoling prospect that confronts the home owner and those other tax payers who already have hard work to make both ends meet.
 In the five years that have elapsed since March 31, 1904, the city budget, as represented by the appropriations made by the Tax Board, has increased $452, All. or 42.5 per cent. The great est ratio of increase is found in the last two years. Taking the five years together the cost of running the city would not quite double in ten years. But the increase is not uniform, and is being so rapidly accelerated as to make sound the earlier conclusion, pro- vided something does not occur to check the rapidly expanding outlay.
 How enormous is this growth of ex- penddture may be seen when it is com pared with the growth of population In the five years population has in creased more than IS per cent
 The growth of expenditure has also been much greater than the increase in the grand list, which has grown little more than 20 per cent
 That the increase of expenditure has exceeded greatly the increase of the grand list is most plainly shown in the expansion of the tax rate, which was for 1903-4 S13.30 on every thousand as against $15.so per thousand in the present year.
 Almost half of this increase falls di- rectiy upon home owners, whose prop erty makes up about 45 per cent. of the grand list. Owners of land and homes. taken together, pay much more than half.
 That these <enornous charges against homes occur at a time when hundreds of dwellings are unrentable and yield ing no income to their owners is not the least of the reasons why the tax payers of the city are becoming rest less under the burdens laid upon them.
 For a, time the owners of realty were not much alarmed because of the ex- travagance with which everything re- lating to- the municipality was done. If they paid more taxes they charged it into the rent, and the tenant paid the tax, and perhaps somehing added, realizing in the meantime that he was a taxpayer.
 when tenants abandoned their rents for cheaper ones. Then a general re- duction in rents took place throughout the city, and the burden of the tax was thrown back upon the landlord.
 This is the reason why the munich pal charges are being scrutinized now as they seldom have been before.
 Another cause of unrest among the taxpayers undoubtedly is the senSa- tional state of affairs revealed by the Some of these revela- tions have caused owners of dwelling house property to believe that as a class they pay a great deal more than their just share to the cost of government.
 The pity of it is that, by general the city has little to show for it's vast expenditures. It is in a shabby condition from suburb to su- burb. It's streets have never been in such horrible shape as now. And this applies even more to streets that are not much used by automobiles.