Semi-weekly herald., 1911-11-23
COST NOT A REASON
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first one thousand and $3.50 for each
additional thousand. The legal rate
for printing the charter and the cleo
ton notices is 7 cents line for the
first insertion and cents line for
each additional insertion. These are
the highest legal rates that can be.
charged, but as matter of fact the
city's contract for printing is very
much less, and at any rate both The
Herald and the Democrat agreed to
do all the printing involved in the
charter elections-no matter how
many there may be--for not more
than $3.50. The chances are that the
printing bill would not be one-haif
that much, but giving his opponents
the benefit of the doubt Mr.. Wingate
put the printing bill in at $3.50 the
highest rate that can be charged un-
der any circumstances and adding that
to the $3.50 for election officers, and
$50 for the rent of polling places, he
found that the total cost of all the
elections could not be more than
s1,31O.
He next showed that the assessed
valuation of the property in Durango
is $1,912,970, and that a three-fourths
mill levy on that valuation would yield
$l,434.72. And then making allow
ance for the fact that only 95 per
cent of the taxes may be collected, he
showed that even after making that
allowance a three-fourths mill levy
will yield s1,362.9S, or fifty dollars
more than the estimated cost Of all
the elections. These estimates took
the ground from under all the objec-
tions that have SO far been raised, by
Alderman Jarvis and the other men
who are opposing commission gov
ernment, for they show that the total
cost to man whose property is as
sessed at $1,000 would be only 70
cents.
1t is true that under the present
system aldermen sometimes have
many political obligations to discharge
and that may be one reaso' why past
elections have cost 50 much A few
years ago tie printing bills in one
election alone amounted 10 ~, ,inG. bit
under the commission sys.eD, III,
200 votes in Durango will be counted
for 10 cents apiece or somebody viii
be recalled.
In order 70 nlaintai1 tic old COZ
rupt syst. I'm tho argument is being
used that the new system will cost
more, but the men who use that ar
gument never brlng forward any 6g-
ures to prove it. Il,wever, Alder :
man Wingate was prepared for them
last night, and his opponents did not
have word to say when he read the
following statement in which the cost
OF the old and the new systems are
compared.
Under the old system the city's
bill for salaries each month is as
follows: Mayor, $50; eight aldermen,
at 500 each, $3.50; clerk, 500; treas
urer, $50; water superintendent, $160;
attorney, SIS; police magistrate, $25;
physician, s12.5o; engineer, $40; sex
ton, So. Total for month $5S7 so.
Total for year $7,050.
Under the new system, Mr.. Win
gate thinks that a large part of the
city's work will be done by the three
commissioners who will devote their
entire time to the city's business and
be paid as follows; Mayor, $1,S0O
per year, and two commissioners, ST.
500 each. He thinks that the mayor
besides acting as chairman of the fl
rance committee, should have direc-
ton of lights, bridges and buildings.
One of the commissioners besides
being chairman of the committee on
health and police, should have charge
of the city hall and Jail and act as
clerk.
The other commissioner would be
water superintendent, and besides be-
ing chairman of the fire and water
committee, he would have charge of
cemetery and parks.
Besides the $4,000 which the COM
missioners would receive for doing
these things the city's pay roll would
be as follows: Attorney, SIS; police
magistrate, s25; physician, $3.50; en-
gineer, $40; sexton, SIS. Total for the
year, s6,330. A balance in favor of
the commission system of S720 per
year.
The opponents of commission gov
ernment have not pointed out any er-
rors in Mr.. Wingate's estimates, and
until they do so we will have to as
sumo that they are correct.
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