The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-03
A Remarkable Lesson
 0f Year s Experience

l There was still some seyenty-odd thou. sand dollars that was lost to the city by. prohibition. The inflow and outgo | of the city's revenue had been almost
 scientifically even in the by-gone years.
 Something, therefore. had to be done
 to meet the pressing demands of dis bursements Or rather. something would not have to be done as the de-
 velopments proved, for with an unpre- csdented wave, tax receipts flowed into 1 the city treasury in the latter months
 of 1908 and surpassed all records.
 State Tax Communication.
 In the first place, the State Tax Con- mission had got in several good days work in these parts, had vetoed the
 County Board of Revenue on assess nents and fixed the aggregate real and personal property valuations for the County of Jefferson millions and mii- lions higher than was the basis for lsOI-0s. To be exact. the assessm ents Of Jefferson for I90S-0s amounted to tsl .sSs.s6s. whereas In fs07-Os the cit-
 izens paid in the aggregate only on $7T.75e, 7Ss
 When. therefore. the assessment snee. was turned over to Collector Eusffs of the city of Birmingham 1t was most precious document. 1t was one of the best things that ever hap pened Tor Birmingham. It was one or the invaluable requirements of the advocates of prohibition. All because. with the derrieks put to real and per sonal propertyt way seemed clear 70 harvest sufficient shekeis to plug tne remaining treasury orince which SUI gaped at the Mayor and Board. put H means hustle to collect the taxes. It meant a busy pair of per- sons, not only in Tax Collector Eustis, but In License Collector Boggan.
 mat these officers, under the pressure of Mayer Ward. really got busier than ever they did before, Is demonstrated by the results. During 1908, the real ana personal tax collections ewelled ao the unequalled total of ss4o.75a35. s267.3s440. showing an increase of siS.S6s.s5. So, 1t can be seen that while the license deficit, to be accu- rate, was $69,3Tf.37 (the remainder of the $1I3,100t being made up by hoist tng other permits to do businessl. on account of the heavy increase in tax eoliections, there was an actual in- crease net to the treasury Of $3.sg7.5s. These figures have been furnished with care hy City Auditor C. S. Petersen.
 Auditor Petersen was asked to what he attributed>t readiness with which the raised taxes were paid by property owners. He said: -
 Tn my opinion, there was rush to pay the taxes partly on account of the loyalty to the city. They realized the emergency through which VIC are pass Ing, For this reason, hundredk and hundreds of the largest taxpayers came many weeks before due date to the tax office and paid over the amounts.
 You see, the new fiscal year had been changed to December l, and the taxes were not really due until then: but long before that, the receipts be- gan to come in. Then, too, there is A low now that bjects delinouenta to sale for taxes by an order of the Chancery Court instead of of by the city methods. They hoped by paving promptly to forestall the fncreasu5 costs that would have to de deducted from the sale proceeds.
 The prompt payment of taxes and licenses seems to have solved the breech in finance with the city. for if enabled Mayor Ward ,who had bor- rowed $i76.000 for general mainten- ance, and $20,000 for schools, last year. to pay or these short time loans. He reality. Auditor Petersen declares thaf more than enough money was on hand to retire the notes several weeks ha- fore they were due.
 No Retremehmemt Policy.
 While timarously' the city fathers ana citizens generally awaited deyeIon- ments in the solution of the problem the Council did not adopt the policy of retrenchment that would have been expected. The various heads of the de- partments will tell you that their ex- penses actually were more than for the