The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-02-26

The budget as arranged by Mayor Wilson's Tax
Board will warrant careful study The grand list is
large reductions made by of Relief the add
tons to the grand list this year, were without precedent
and the total which the levy made is in the neigh
The tax rate is fixed sixteen one-half mills
This result been accomplished without eson
of appropriations for things most useful
For months the mayor has insisted that the very
to build new almshose The people at the polls twice
sgned their belief that the necessary ought not to-
then sought appropriation of the Tax Board but
given them In lieu Of beginning the work charge
this time without consulting the citizens In other words
he hopes to obtain from the General Assembly perisson
Aims bonds the heads Of the electors
This Of the referendm IS called to the ae
ton of the thousands of citizens Bridgeport who in the
past have found useful protection to their pocketbooks
The budget includes little or nothing for PERnGA-
NENT PAVEMENTS, although such pavements are
needed and the mayor has had much to about their
Here again he and his sponsors prefer to rely upon
out reference to the views of the fellow citizens who put
There is one item of the budget conspicuous
for it's Tt is the appropriation for fifty new po
licemen, and nine expensive eutenants Of police Here
$4,000 year The sum, byreason of what the increase
will bring in train will be 100000 annually.
expense than there is for skates automobile.
But the administration and the peculiar forces it
resents need them, to help party primaries next
Aims houses and permanent pavements have not
votes. They do not register in primaries They cannot
hustle for the boys But several hundred police appoin
those actually appointed, and those to whom
appointments promised, do lot Of work that
line They do it than party and Mayor
Wilson has designs moro than one party or his spon
have.
Mayor Wilson, prior to his nomination, promised a
fat tax of IS mills
This newspaper said that the fiat tax merely a
lure, and that his actual purpose to borrow heavily
and plunge the city into debt deeply might be.
How well circumstances have since fulfilled this prog
noscaton any citizen who reads the newspapers will
know.
In September there was submitted proposed debt
amounting 600 It defeated most OF it
whelming1y
The mayor has proposed and there is pending
before the General Assembly further projects create
debt amounting to 1175OOO, making total debt pro
posed by the mayor of $3.50 OOO which is going in
city famous throughout the United States for its strict
adherence to the pay you go PLAN
Now sixteen and one-half mill tax raises about ST.,
100000 which is about half the amount his honor has
strenuously advocated by way Of debt
Mayor Wilson's ACTUAL PROPOSAL to the people
Of Bridgeport therefore, is budget of $5,0750OO com
posed third of tax levy and twothirs of debt.
His actual rate, had he had his will, would
have been not &c. but 48 MILLS financial policy which,
if long continued would bring Bridgeport it's
Nor would this have been all The debt created would
compelled the creation of further
debt. The Herring plan could not have been
red to completion for instance short of $6OO0OOO and
would brought large additional expense the
His has been a policy of financial folly inspired by
the of municipal corporations, seeking
delay long possible municipal ownership of those
things
tense of the fifteen mill rate, plus unlimited borrowing
Next November they will take themselves out Of jeopardy
by putting into office somebody whose ideas of municipal
finance little more conservative.