The Raymer enterprise., 1919-06-12
SCHOOL BOARD
MEETS BOND men


bond dealers were in Raymer Tues
day to negotiate bond issue for the
purpose Of retiring outstanding
school warrants.
There were Tuesday morning. ac-
cording to a report from County
Treasurer Phillips by telephone.
$30,67s.14 In registered warrants
He informs us that there remain
something like $4,000 Of school tax
to be collected which will be avail
able to reduce the amount Of these
warrants In August or September.
Howver, II the tax when collected.
10 applied to- retiring warrants. new
warrants will have to continue to be
registered. so that the amount would
be approximately the same again in
. short time.
Upon these outstanding warrants
the district is required to pay six per
cnt interest. We can float bonds at
5h per cent. The direct saving liz
interest will be then $225 per year.
But ~ a warrant has no certain
day Of payment, It is not SO desir-
able q form Of investment and war
rants are being discounted 2 to s
per cent.
This discount is considered by
teachers, drivers and dealers, so that
teachers are offering to hire for less
money, II the district agrees to make
the discount good.
This brings the interest rate which
the warrants really cost at the pres
ent time to 10 per cent or even more
When all school warrants are reg
istered and discounts prevail, the
district will pay the discount In in
creased wages and prices. so the in,
terest rate will really be about 10
per cent, and the saving around
$500 per year In interest charges.
Some patrons Of the school have
thought that the bond issue would
mean higher taxes. The fact Is that
the bond issue will assist In keeping
from raising the tax levy.
The warrants must be paid togeth-
er with the interest. The present
tax levy Is required to pay the run
ming expenses Of the school. The
only way then to get away from the
registering OF warrants is to issue
bonds or increase the levy so as not
only to pay running expenses. but
retire the warrants. A tax sufficient
to retire all OF the warrants in one
year II there was no school at all
would be about half more than all of
the school tax levied for this year
That is II your school tax was 800.
this year, 1t would require a pay
ment Of $3.50 by you to take up the
warrants alone. The running ex-
psnses would have to be paid in ad
dition. OF course, no one would ad-
vocate an attempt to liquidate the
outstanding warrants In one year by
taxation. II would be drastic to at
tempt to retire them In six years, and
to do that would require that IS 900
q year be raised over current expens-
60 to retire the warrants In six years,
besides the annual interest charge
Of 1880 In excess of the bond rate
Of interest.
That would mean then that you
would have to add at least 25 per
cent to current school tax to get
away from registering warrants II
the bonds are not issued and contin-
ue such increase for a period cover
ing the next six years.
The tax payer may not be entirely
familiar with the manner in which
these registered warrants have ac-
cumulated. The district had very
few schools prior to the fall OF 1910.
At that time the district comprise,.
the present district and the present
district Of Stoneham. There was
little or NO money in the treasury,
and few school houses, but there
were a great many pupils. Several
school buildings were erected and
teachers hired. and registering war
rants was the order OF the day then
The writer was not here until the
year following, but believes that waa
the way the matter was accomplish
cd, the district being practically
year behind at that time.
We do know that when the dis
trict was divided In 1912. there was
NO money to divide and that this dis
trict inherited considerable debt
for the financial condition at that
time, but Of course not of such size
- It Ii at present.
The increase came from the fact
that the bond Issue when the school
house was built was not SUFFICIENT tc
meet the expense Of the Lincoln
ha,ildfnn md fha f0iir OF her schools