New Britain herald., 1917-01-09
NINETEEN MILL TAX
 ADOPTED BY VOTERS Revenue From Four Mills in Part
 Payment Of School Addition NORTON BUYS, BIG TRACT
Four Rooms to Be Added to Broad
 Street Schoolhouse-Cost Estimated at 17,OOO-Nelsons Celebrate Sil- yer Wedding Anniversary-Brief

Authorizing the construction of an addition of four rooms to the brick
 schoolhouse on Broad street, making the expense of the same: laying a l four mill tax to raise half the money l this year, and adopting tax rate of fifteen mills to secure the revenue necessary to meet the ordinary bills 1 of the fiscal year, the voters at last l nights town meetings disposed of two | important problems and paved the way for a much needed improvement.
 Efforts to have the tax rate 16h and 1 5.2 mills and to have a special com- l mittee appointed to look into tho needs of the town regarding addition 1 al school accommodations met with failure, and except for the laying of l a special tax of four mills to cover part of the expense of the school ad- dition, the meetings resulted in the manner that had been expected. The sessions drew a, crowd of over one hundred and the debate was of a lively character although the absence of personalities and mud sling1ng so 1 characteristic of P1ainville town meetings was very noticeable. S. S.. Gwillim served as chairman of both sessions. Town Clerk R. c. Usher keeping the records.
 After explaining that the budget ! prepared by the selectmen indicated 1 that a tax of 15.2 mills would be nec- essary to meet the expenses, F. L.. Benzon introduced a resolution on the
 grounds that with economical ham, 1 ding of the funds a fifteen mill rate l would be sufficient: MT. Benzon's notion was lost.
 Selectman Johnson moved that a 1 fifteen mill rate be established. He argued that this rate might not raise quite enough revenue but he figured 1 that a few items of income omitted from the budget and a probable sav- ing In some departments would mako
 the margin between the expenses and
 receipts very slight. Last year he explained the school board spent $1,- 900 more than they had asked for The selectman had also estimated q year ago that $35,O0O would be col lected in taxes whereas the amount fell short about $1,4oO Despite these conditions nearly s9Oo was left over at the end of the year. He be- lieved that if all the taxes were ool- lected this year, and in his opinion they should be. the revenue would be sufficient to pay the bills. MT. Ben zon argued that an individual or set of business men would not figure their own affairs at such a small margin and he amended the selectman's mo- tion to make the rate 162 mills. MT. Brock declared that I've are taxing the poor mans home out of existence" and should practice more economy He characterized the pur- chase of voting machines and the
 making of other improvem ents, which he termed unnecessary, as extrava- gance. MT. Benzon answered by claiming that day of reckoning
 shall come unless the town pays It's bills as 1t goes and the poor man shall eventually be the sufferer as result
 A. H. ,Condell pleaded for a rate
 that would be sufficient to meet the expenses. He showed where the towns debt has been pil1ng up from year to year because of the fact that the voters seem to be good spenders but poor payers. He contended that out of the entire receipts the select
 men will have less than $7.o00 on which to accomplish saving, the other expenses being of a nature to bring them out of the boards con- trol. He cited the improved condi- tions under which the people now live and argued for Mir. Benzon's mo- tion. Since the creation of a bond issue the town has been running
 steadily behind, he said.
 MT. Benzon's amendment was de- clared lost and the selectman's motion for fifteen mills rate was then car ried with but little opposition.
 During the debate Robert Forshaw started to criticise the assessors but
 was called to order by the chairman.
 He contended that number of
 property owners have already felt an
 increase in their taxes by the action
 of the assessors in raising the valua-
 tion of their places. They put out
 a lot of bluffs but that's all the sat-
 isfaction you get when you complain
 to them," he declared, the chair ask
 ing him at this point to stick to the
 question
 When the matter of providing ad-
 ditional school accommo modauons came
 up at a special session following the
 adjournment of the annual meeting.
 A. l.. Rogers, chairman of the school
 committee, read statistics to show
 that more room must be provided.
 Two new grades are necessary be- cause of the overcrowded condition
 in the rooms now in use. The first
 grade has forty-nine pupils whereas
 all school authorities claim that no
 teacher can give efficient instruction
 to class of more than forty. The
 other grades up to the sixth have
 from three to nine pupils more than
 should be allotted to a single teacher.
 rI>1,e q
 in the schools compared with 579
 of a year ago and there is every in-
 dication that by next fall the town
 will tn ho