The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-23

tionment and Taxation of the City
 of Bridgeport.
 Gentlemen:
 Tn accordance with the provisions of law, I herewith submit for your consideration, the acquisitions requir ed to be made to me. by the boards and officers of the city, with my rec concentrations pertaining thereto, for the next fiscal year.
 Permanent Improvements.
 As you will see, there are embodied in the requisitions. requests for fm- provements of a permanent charac- ter. which improvements when re- quired, I consider proper subjects for a bond issue. and they are, there fore. eliminated from my schedule of appropriations at this time. They are as follows:
 New Police Station at West End.
 New Isolation Hospital.
 New Fire Engine House.
 Garage at sCentral Police Station.
 There are also the following pro- posed improvements not yet present ed to me. for official action, but which will, undoubtedly, reach you before your final meeting:
 New High School Building
 New Aims House.
 New East Washington Avenue
 New Dock, south of Wall street. =
 I also consider those improvements of a permanent nature and when re- quired. they should be bonded for. | deem it my duty to sound note of Warning against unnecessary or ex- cea1ve bonding. Bond only for need cd improvements of D permanent na- ture and for reasonable amounts.
 Build or construct each and all of such necessary permanent improve demands of the city for a period of at least fifty years. then issue serial bonds for such period, payable in equal annual installments. so that the entire issue of bonds will be fully paid during the, life. of the improve ments thus bonded for. In this man ner the expense can be fairly dis trfbuted among those who will enjoy the benefits
 At present. I am unable to deter mine the cost of the Improvements, or the amount of bonds required, and concentrations to you any sum for payment of interest or installments to become due son same, during the next fiscal year, but the details will or committees having them in charge. in time for action before your labors are terminated.
 T deem it my duty to state that if all of the improvements specified are thus provided for by bond issues on
  largely increase our bonded debt and the burdens incident thereto; prob ably such increase of debt may az gregate one million dollars; although the estimates are not now before me.
 And. this leads to the consideration of the question of bonding in general, one of the most serious questions we have to deal with.
 Bonding.
 Our. total bonded debt at the pres ent time is $2,10s,200.00. We have paid during the present fiscal year for interest and on account of prin- cipal on our existing bonded debt, the sum of $1B0.700.00 or about one tenth of the entire revenues of the city during the year. thus leaving only nine-tenths of such revenues for all operating expenses of the city. It is we'll to bear this fact in mind in discussing the question of bonding. It ly, about one million dollars to the funded debt of the city, and, of course, this will reduce still more our availa ble resources for operative expenses
 This increase of . million, if car will have to pay in addition to the sum now paid for interest and for installmentS on principal of debt, fassumfng that the new bonds will
  oo0-00 for the first year. the amount gradually diminishing each successive year as the volume of bonds is re- duced- We will, therefore, in case such increase of debt Is ordered, be obliged to divert from the revenues S215. .0oo.00 to take care of the fund ed debt, and this will equal nearly one-eighth of such entire revenue thus leaving only seven-eighths of our estimated revenues available next year for the operative expenses of the city. My object in placing this matter thus is an endeavor to con- fine bonding to strictly legitimate purposes, to wit:-necessary perman- ent improvements-so that the avail able resources of the. city may not be mortgaged to pay current expenses. The latter should be paid from the proceeds of taxation each year as we 20 along ~. What Improvements Are Not Proper
 Subjects for Bonding.
 I do not consider street pavements fit or proper subjects for bonding. as they cannot be called, in any sense. of the words. permanent im-
 The life of such pavements, wheth- CT wood, brick, or asphalt is only about ten years, and the term of any bond issue to pay for them, if made, ought not to exceed ten years,
 I consider that it would be a mis- take to bond for such a term or for such a purpose. nor do deem it at all necessary.
 We constructed last year a fair and reasonable amount of street pave ment-in fact all that could be ad- vantageously done-and this was eff fected by commencing work as early fin the season as possible, completing a street. then assessing it ard using the amounts collected for further work. during the same season, and this same process can be repeated this year.
 By providing reasonable sum, say s4o,00O for paving and by commerce ing the work on State street on +or about April 1st next and prosecuting 1t as rapidly as possible, the benefits can be assessed. collected and easily made available. as already stated, for method can be repeated perhaps on other streets so that, for the amount of the paving appropriation )recom- mended by me, about $70,00O worth of work can be done this season. If bonds as proposed to the amount of $100, 900 were issued, it is extremely doubtful if any greater sum than that above stated could be advantageously expended during the season of 1911, ana there might be a tendency to ex- pend. the avails of bonds on streets where pavement is not absolutely re- Quired or desired by the property owners But my main objection to an issue of bonds for street paving is that it would establish a precedent of bonding for what I consider to be