Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1911-03-08

the issuance of county bonds that was
made by Mr.. Gait of the Hawaiian
Trust Company before the Senate COM
mittee on the county bonding bill-that
the revenues of the Territory are al
ready pledged to cover outstanding
bonds at the present time, and that
to involve these revenues in the is
suance of county bonds would serious
ly jeopardize the credit of the Terri
tory
On the main issue, whether a tax
limitation of / per cent. was in the
best interests of the country, the eX-
Governor placed himself on record as
being emphatically in the negative.
"There should be no fixed maxi
num-" he. declared &c county gov
ernbent is going to be success and
credit to us, which, in my opinion
with the exception of Kauai-it has
not done up to the present time, it is
absolutely essential that a greater de-
gree of responsibility must be fixed
as between the county officers and the
taxpayer That is the only thing that
will assure the development of cOun-.
ty government and increase its effec1
tiveness. / vetoed the first county act,
not because it provided for county
government, but solely because it did
not possess, in my Judgment, the es-
sential elements of local self govern
ment-that is, the power of imposing
taxation and fixing definitely the re-
sponsibility of the county officials hav-
ing the control over expenditures di-
rectly to the taxpayer"
Mr.. Garter then stated that nothing
could be accomplished with a county
bound down to a per cent. limita-
tion-that in the practical operation of
county taxation the rate might adj
vance, but as the scheme was worked
out it would gradually recede in rate.
1.-THE fixing of financial responsible
ity in the county through control over
the tax rate is the first guarantee of
effective county government, and the
selection of men who will keep this
rate down by the economical and eff p
fective expenditure of public money is
the first guarantee of efficiency" add
ed Carter. "The fixing of a / per cent.
limitation means the weakening of this
responsibility and the resort to the
old methods increasing assessment
values"
Carter dWelt on the Importance of
making the interest and sinking fund
on Territorial bonds a first charge on
revenue and in this line submitted an
amendment to the first resolution as
follows:
Il offer as an amendment to the res
olution that the form of any law or
bill making a change in the method of
taxation be so arranged that first con-
sideration in any estimate be given to
interest and sinking fund, if any, by
both Territory and county, in prefer
ence to current expense and permanent
improvements"
The amendment was adopted
T, II. Petrie of Castle & Cooke call
ed attention to the fact that the bond
ing resolution read do hereby oppose
the policy of providing funds for in
ternal improvements by the issuance
of county bonds or from current revo-
nues." Mr., Petrie thought that cor
from current revenues was infringing
on the rights of the counties to ex-
pend their current revenues as they
saw fit.
Mr.. Paxton, the ntroducer of the
resolution, replied that the committee
that drafted the resolution was willing
to strike out the reference to current
revenues and the resolution was ac-
cordingly amended.
Remarks favoring the establishment
of l per cent. limitation were made
by FaXon Bishop, who declared that
the power in the hands of the asses
sor was sufficient for all the purpose
of elasticity and by w. A. Bowen who
thought that per cent. maximum was
a safe and conservative figure within
which to give the new system thor
ough trial.