The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-11
.DR. DICKINSON SAYS
 CITY SHOULD BUY ALL ITS UTILITIES
Revenue Will Not Only Pay Interest But Will Yield the City Large
 Income

1 Dr. A. J. Dickinson, president of the Birmingham Municipal Ownership league,
 under the title "Sit Steady in the Boat'
 issued the following comment on the re- suits of Judge Sharpe's decision yester- i day:
 There is manifested disposition to 1 become unduly excited over the citys
 failure to win the Mcdonald suit, espe- | cially on the part of reporters. This is
 in my judgment a great mistake. That
 this city will have to be revolutionized l in it's finances is true, but that revolu- | ton need not be deleterious to its prog
 ress and life, but may be made to pro-
 mote our prosperity in coming days. The city's financial affairs greatly need to
 be revised and brought up to date, for it | is far behind most modern and progress | sve cities of it's size and situation. "Hitherto we have been depending too l exclusively on collecting the city revenue from taxation on business and property 1 and we must now learn how to collect revenue from municipal service in public l utilities, as do other cities. The proposed street tax tuition tax in the schools, 1 etc, are not advisable because the coi- | lection of taxes of this kind is too ex-
 pensive and the distribution of them too 1 inequitable, and I am sure such methods l of taxation will not find favor with the l people, or be found remunefatlVe 10 the | city.
 But if the city shall take over it's
 public utility service which the bill
 passed by the last legislature permits the
 city to do, it will find therein the means for collecting whatever taxes 1t may need l with practically no expense to the city CT | the taxpayer. This means a very large
 bond issue, sufficient to take care of | the bonds now cut out of the privilege | of sharing in the special 5-mill tax, and l to supply the finances needed to acquire
 the plans for the public service in water.
 gas light and power Can the city hope 1 to float such large loan? This is the crux of the above proposal.
 | "On this matter I am not competent to l express any opinion that would be of
 value, but professional and expert men in
 municipal financial matters say that ths
 city could float such loan under pres
 ent conditions more easily than they
 could have floated the bonds recently voted under the old situation. Certainly l the competency of the city to collect | revenue under this proposal is much | greater and more certain than under the old plan of taxing property and business alone, and in floating bonds this is the 1 first consideration with investors. A first 1 lien on the property and revenues of | the plants for the payment of interest and sinking fund on the bonds would make these bonds very desirable invest | ments, and this could be done by con- | tract with the trust company through l which the bonds are to be sold and paid | But this is a matter for expert opinion l to decide.
 | Another side of this matter may be
 mentioned. The old policy of depend- l ing on alternating the municipal re- | sources of this city by farming them ! out to foreign exploiters for song
 must cease We cannot build up | city here without conserving its grow | ing municipal values. whether of prop erty or privilege, for the promotion of | the city's life and vital assets. This very suit illustrates what I mean. In | the late nineties. when the city was l in financial panic. it bought surcease l from the bondholders by having this | amendment passed, whereby they were I given first and an exclusive lien on | the property values of the city by this ! 5-mill tax. This was a pure grant of | special favor. as it has been construed
 by Judge Sharpe; and the city was | then and has been since following the | policy of granting as special favors
 municipal values to those seeking | them for private and exclusive enjoy l ment, by and with the advice and con- l sent of the Chamber of Commerce. Now
 we find that all the sources of mu- ' nicipal revenues are exempted by | those holding these exclusive fnan- 1 chises and grants of special favor. and | large dividends are flowing out of the | city each year to these foreign i'm vestors. and there is not revenue enough available to operate the schools and other lines of municipal life. We must change this policy of giving away | to other our municipal. values, on which l they float enormous bond issues and | other securities to be paid by the cit- 1 izens receiving their service and we l must give. the benefit of this source
 of revenue to our own municipality.
 (Continued on Page Seveny