The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-21
GRAND LIST
 CUT $25O,OOO BY
 RELIEF BOARD

| SeCfetdfy owen BUTTS or the Board of Relief which will finish it's work this evening estimates that the total reductions of the board from grand list will be $25OOO0. And this is after a few additions to the list were made | by the board.
 l The deduction will bring the grand l list figures of the board of assessors $S5,1S7,935 down to $84, ,937, ,935. The grand list estimated by Auditor Keat- l ing, was $S4,S5O, 900.
 | The auditor recommended tax of 1 16 mills and the board of apportion- ment on it's preliminary list has laid | a tax rate of 17.5 mills.
 1 Under the auditors rate 1t meant l that property owners would have to pay at the rate of $16 per thousand. l This was virtually the same tax rate as last year to pay the expense of 1 running the city.
 1 The rate of last year was 15.8 mills and the additional two-tenths mills l added this year was asked to meet the state tax of sS6, 900, resultant of the heavy indebtedness into which years of Republican rule has plunged the state.
 In it's preliminary report the Board of Apportionment has added approxi- 1 mately $126,270 to the expenditures l his report.
 | Among the items added by the mem- bers of the board of apportionment and not recommended by the auditor are the following:
 l $10,OO0 for block maps for the asses sors; $1,000 for 25 city atlases; $10,000 special, for the reduction of garbage; $7,75O, special for the health depart ment: $24,OOG instead of $1O,00O to take care of deficiency in Charities depart ment; $4,000 for road oil; s5,000 for street grading instead of $4,000; $5, 480 i for new macadaTn in State street ex- tension and Bishop avenue; $16,000 for new bridge in Boston avenue as peti- tioned for by the U. M. c. Co.,; Fire department special $26800 instead of $12,0O0; and several other items minor importance.
 The extra s1,0o0 for street grading and part of the $5,4S0 for new maca- to the bridge that the Bridgeport Land & Title Go. is to build across eAsh Creek in order to improve real l estate holdings it has on the Fairfield side of the creek. The company will pay $1,500 for the bridge and the esti- mated cost of the city in grading for the approaches and the macadamizing 1 for the same is about S4,500. This is one of the appropriations favored by B. D. Pierce of the board. To those l familiar with the conditions it seems that the city is making a. fixed expense for itself in caring for the street while those who are to be most bene- fitted by the improvement are the 1 owners of the Faipfield real estate. There are several members of the | Common Council who believe the tax payers money should not be spent to 1 boom private real estate holdings and they intend to oppose the performance l nf he 1n iC | ated.
 The $4,OO0 road oil appropriation was recommended by Director C. F. A. Biltz. The auditor did not think the oil was necessary if the city was pay ing for street sprinkling. The mem bers of the Board of Apportionment lput the items back on to the list.
 The appropriation of $1,000 for city aliases was made upon the solicitation of Alderman H. H. Jackson who made it plain that the publishers were get ting out a very useful book for the city officials and real estate dealers, but would lose money on the proposl- tion if 200 copies were not sold.
 Auditor Heating is opposed to the proposition to appropriate $16,000 by direct taxation for a bridge in
 Boston avenue. He thinks the money
 should be raised. by bond issue.
 The appropriation was added to the preliminary list, however, as the rep
 resentatives of the U. M. c. Co. stated
 they would give $10,O00 toward the
 construction of the bridge if it was
 built this year. It is understood tl,at
 the bridge will cost $26,000.
 Instead of putting the entire esti-
 mated cost of the bridge on the grand list and adding the $10,0b(
 from the U. M. c. Co. to the esti-
 mated receipts the board only enter.
 ed the $16,00O and made no entry o1 the expected $10,OO0.
 One way in which the tax rate car !, be made lighter to the majority of the
 taxpayers is in following the recom-
 mepdations of Zalmon Goodsell and putting all of the items possible ill
 the first district as was done in the
 case of the street lights. MT. Good
 sell discovered that the Second dls- t1ict taxpayers were not alone paying for their own improvements but were T paying 1920 of the expense of rum ming the First tax district. There is over $3,00O,000 of taxable property in the First district that, in the opin- ion of MT. Goodsell should bear more
 of the taxation than it is doing a, the present.
 The board of apportionment vii
 meet at o'clock tomorrow morning for the purpose of laying the fna tax rate. There is talk of there be
 ing some cutting done in various di-
 rections in order to get the rate
 down to IT mills, but where the cut.
 ting will begin no one knows.