The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-01-23
THE CITY AUDITORS REPORT.

which merits the thoughtful consideration of every c
It shows the financial path upon which the city has
been journeyng during the last year,
al which may well alarm the taxpayers upon whom bur
dens of thessness and extravaganza in the conduct of
public business must finally and certainly fall.
The City Auditor has, under the Charter duty of
receiving the estimates of the various officers and boards
of the city There certain expenses the nature
fixed charges such bonds and their interest that
not within the province of any city department. the
auditor his list of estimates provides
Mr.. Heating has occupied his important post for
He has erred upon the side of parsi-
ony, when he has erred at ALL and seldom has Board
of Apportionment able keep the
the rate recommended by him.
These facts are necessary to enable the reader who
unfamiliar with Mr.. Keatng's record budget maker
to grasp the full import of his present
ayagance which has been brought to the OF
In beginning his work the CITY Au dtor sashed from
the estimates confded to him a MILLION DOLLARS.
This left, Imperative to be raised approximately
additions to expense that have been created he
This amount is 100000 in excess of the amount re-
CURED for municipal operation during previous fiscal
year
It is an amount made necessary by such hgh-handed
and npudent operations the creation OF the police
dnances regarding which the Auditor says that he
pense caused BY the legislation because the Common
Council has power to contract the obligation This is
true The Common Council can make an ordinance in
creasing the police expense by 100000 per annum
stead Of by $4,000 it has done and the Auditor will
be helpless and 50 viii other citizen after the may
or's signature is attached.
But there the Auditors affection for the ordinances
ends He provides for the nine eutenants and al
the sergeants detectives and patromen in his list of
estimates because it is the law that helGUsT.
But he respectfully declines party the eff
fort to conceal the effect that the police ordinances have
upon the tax rate He has respectfully, but nnanfull
declined to cut from the estimates the mill tax for
schools as demanded by the mayor
In this also he is sound. In Connecticut the educa
ton of its youth the important duty govern
ment The welfare Of the state and the prosperity of the
nation bound the instruction OF the young To
purpose the fathers gave willingly property
and the and of to-day have not spared their
The Board of Education has both the power and the
must keep the school system equal to the demands made
upon by the growth of population and the increase in
the birth rate. This it do without consideration
that official temporarily in authority desires to
u trn ponee aeparFeft nto aaa
desires to conceal from the taxpayers the financial truth
about their affairs BY eliminating provision for school
Little under Mayor Wilson's regime has tax justice
proted the tax payer Borrowing from earlier admin
invited NEW METHODS OF SPENDING the additional
income which has thereby been received.
Profigate Investigations which have yielded naught
extravaganza, have been piled upon another
/ Experts have been employed among other things to
Their the Sygian burden of the budget by
tracing debt of enormous proportions, the
interest and principle of which would lie upon every
shoulders and constitute mortgage upon every IS
home.
is not stated in the circumstances that have been already
reviewed.
year ago. when he hoped cover up the true facts
of his fiscal policy the bounteous expenditure Of millions
of borrowed money, he determined upon fat
Is mills which he declared ought to be uniform from year
to year. when taken with the growth of the grand list
To get his fat rate he obliged to resort to divers
expedients Some things that ought to have been paid
for when purchased he bought the instaent PLAN
making his estimates for the ensuing year he overest
matedagainst the experience of the audtorby $4,000
the amount of the back tax that would be collected and by
$4,000 the amount of the personal that would be col
lected, total over estimate of $4,000
Moreover he obtained for sewers and permanent
paving $2OOOOO which relieved his budget of equiva-