The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-31
HOME RULE.

| HOME RULE.
| AS has been the case in all the leg
| isla lures; of the last decade or so, a
whole raft of bills has been intro
! duced at the present session providing
for the amendment of city charters in
many and divers ways. Some of these
/ bills contemplate important changes
| in the city commission law. and are
worthy of the most careful scrutiny
Indeed, all proposed legislation AFFECT
ing cities is of most essential con-
Germ. And there certainly should be
a disposition on the part of the COM
nlittees having these matters IN
charge, and all the members of both
branches of the legislature, as well,
to shape all city legislation in the di-
rection of giving the cities mucn
larger measure of home rule than
they now have.
Under present conditions, cities are
hampered in meeting all sorts OF
emergencies because of the limita-
tions placed on them by the laws OF
the state. No undertaking out of the
ordinary can be pressed to conclu-
sion by any city without waiting a
couple of years or so in order that the
necessary authority can be obtained
in each class are told just how much
and no more they can spend for TINS
purpose, and that one. As matter
of fact, conditions are seldom the
same in any two cities, even OF the
same class. And there is also VICE
divergence between the desires and
sentiments of their citizens in the
matter of public improvements. Yet
y Cd f.
tered by legislative enactments.
About as far as the legislature
should go in debating the financial
operations of city in any particular
is TO fix a limit for the bonded indebt-
ness that it may incur, and compel II
to establish the necessary sinking
funds to pro- e for the payment or
this debt as it becomes due. There
are differing opinions, Of course, as to
how large a bonded Indebtedness
city may create with safety and main |
tain it's credit In some states-and
New York is one of them-the state |
prohibits city from having bonded
indebtedness that is in excess OF 10
per cent of the assessed valuation of
the property in it for the purposes of
taxation This is an elastic plan
sources of a city in proportion to its
growth and development AT present, |
for example, such plan. would per-
nit Topeka a bonded Indebtedness OF
s5,oo0,000. And that
certainly would not be an excessive
debt for a city of this population and !
PROF arty values to carry. Bonds of !
all the many cities in New York state, |
and not a few of them are always on
bonded indebtedness, have as ready a |
market as do the bonds of cities in
any other section of the country.
safeguarding the financial integrity
of the cities in such a fashion is as
far as a legislature should 60 in die
tating its financial program. A legis-
lative system that limits all cities of
the same class as to Just how much |
they shall spend in any one year for
parks, or sewers, or anything else. has
nothing to commend it. 1t works out
in practice, no matter how
good its theory may seem. One city
might want to spend more than an
other for parks, and so in respect to
all varieties of public improvements.
But the financial side is not the only
one in which the cities should have
a larger measure of home rule. There
are many others. And the legislature
the cities if it takes the pains to give
them as complete system of home
rule as it is possible to work out.