The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-18
HOW CONNECTICUT ROBS
 ITS CITIES OF MILLIONS
pfAYoR BUCKINGHAMs MESSAGE RELATIVE TO STATE TAX, DI- RECTs ATTENTION TO CRYING NEvIuS IN FISCAL SYSTEM OF COMMONWEALTH


 COMMONWEALTH
 Enormous Values Taken From Cities
 and Towns Are Given to Private
 Corporations in Perpetual Charters
 -Cities Are Not Then Allowed to
 Tax the Properties, and State Un-
 derfaxes Them-How State Tax
 Could Have Been Avoided
 The city of Bridgeport is faced with an extraordinary expense of ss4,eoo which must be raised upon this years grand list This sum includes the state tax for two years. but the levy of this tax was SO violent and so un- expected that this city cannot meet it by any customary means provided by the law, but must raise the sum to be paid during two years in one year.
 of indirect taxation, has already at tracted the attention of Mayor Buck fnEham. who. in his message. shows the annual character of this extra ordinary demand together with the fact that Bridgeport receives no d. rect benefit from 1t. inasmuch as 1t was laid to meet deficiency, and in- ssmuch as this deficiency is plainly to be traced to extrayagances in the management of the state in which Bridgeport has had little part and from which 1t has had substantially no benefit
 however. already served It has nx- ed the attention of the people Tn ev- cry town and city In Connecticut up- on the wastefulness and lack or oraer E-~rra 1rr IA mi furnished by the men who have for many years been responsible Tor the finances of the commonwealth
 Again 1t has brought into the lime Night the means by which the state revenue is raised. especially so far as the taxation of public service cor porations Is concerned
 Connecticut Is one of the few states in the Union which has given away lavfshly the enormous values that De- long to the people of the cities and the larger towns and boroughs and almost the only state that has grant ed charters in perpetufty.
 Tn most states such charters are for a term of years In many states the cities have power to regulate the rates, and the corporations using the streets have to pay large sums for the franchise privileges
 Hartford is burdened with perl petuaI charters. but 1t does receive a of it's street railway corporations It is the only city in Connecticut so favored
 In Toronto. Canada, the Toronto Street Railway Company pays to the City of Toronto from gross revenues a sum which last year was almost $500. .ooo and which is growing larger each year.
 net profits of the Chicago Street Rail- way companies
 In Massachusetts the state taxes street railway companies. but large portion of the sums received arc turned back to the cities and towns | in which the property is located.
 No protection has ever been given | to the cities and towns or Connecd- cut either by limitation in the fran | chfse period of charters, or by pay meuts equivalent to the values given
 The state has robbed the cities and towns of millions in values to give them to a few private persona T
 Neither does the state protect the | cities in the taxation of the values | W hich it has taken from them for a moment at the taxation of rail- | road and railway property in Bridge port
 The railways are owned by the pany They are leased to the New Haven Railroad at a sum soon to be l $1.5o0,000 annually
 The state has permitted these com l panies to water t-.eir securities until | they are in a position to demand in- l terest and dividends upon more than l SS0,000, ,000, but it taxes them on less | than $2o.ooo.ooo. and only at one per cent
 Moreover the state does not permit | this property to be taxed in the com | munity where it is located
 And the state does not tax this | property at the same rate at which | it would be taxed in the community | where it is located
 The same is true of the property of | the railroad.
 The rate in Bridgeport now is I5-s | mills Homes are taxed at this rate. |
 But railroad and railway property | are taxed only at the rate of one per | cent.
 The effect upon the finances of Bridgeport is something like this. As- l suming the taxable value of | the. the rsiiway c,tx property dSS loeassd 0sS @ in revenue to the city. if it were taxed locally at I5.s mills would | be ss4.soo. But the state taxing at Psr esn i. sss ssssSo Tse S is within ss,o0o, or whereabouts, of the amount of the state tax for one year. state tax because the state will not permit the city to tax all of its own | property, and because the state will | not itself tax the property at the
  Bridgeport
 The railroad property of Bridge port perhaps las a taxable value of | s1o.ooo.ooo which the state taxes at s1o0,000 upon the part of the prop erty so located
 But the additional yield to Bridge | port would be at 15.s mills $5s.00o in excess
 Therefore if Bridgeport were all lowed to tax its own property at the | rate imposed upon the portion it does | tax, or if the state would tax its DOT | tion of, local property upon the same | basis. there would not only be no levy of a state tax upon the grand | list this year, but here there would | be. surplus of s5O.0o0 to be re- turned to Bridgeport to use in mak- ing civic improvements
 All the trolley roads fin the state ! Df Connecticut pay less i'm taxes up- on their property than the single I trolley company in the single city of |