The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1921-04-22

that time unless they are satisfactory
; ly funded the city will have to pre-
duce the money.
The present tax rate is $1.10 o.
the hundred dollars. That brings il
a revenue on the city's SO, 1000 as
sessment .$3S,500 If the city is
sues serial bonds for street improve
ments to the amount of 100000, al
due in ten years, the first years as
sessment, including interest at pc
cent, will be $4,000, and that will
mean an increase of the tax rate 4!
cents on the hundred dollars. O.
course the city's part of this is onl!
one-third, or Is cents, but that i!
taking it for granted that abutting
property owners to these improve
ments pay their assessments prompt
ly. 1t is safe to say that a percentage
of them will not do So Therefore the
tax rate must be made sufficient to
take care of the delinquency, and the
tax rate will therefore be increased
accordingly.
We must bear in mind again that
the owners of abutting property pay
only one-tenth of their assessment
the first year and one-tenth annually
thereafter Therefore from their
two-thirds assessment only one-tenth
would be realized in revenue annual
ly, and therefore the tax increase
necessary the first year on account of
street improvements would be re-
duced very little by this payment.
The city tax therefore on account
of this bond issue, taking it for
granted that the rate of $1.10 is to
remain the same hereafter, will be
increased to $50 on the hundred.
Now we are assuming that an is
sue of bonds for 100000 will be suf-
ficient for the first section of street
Improvements. l think that is the
understanding.
The point in this article is this:
This paper holds to the opinion that
Union City should begin to make per-
manent street improvements, but
that these improvements should be
SO arranged as to be done gradually,
say thru period OF 10 or 15 years. 1t
will take something like million
dollars to pave the streets of Union
City and Union City, we do not be-
lieve, can stand bond issue of half
a million dollars at one time. But
we could afford to increase our bond
ed debt 100000 or $4,000, MAX
ing altogether bond debt, including
our present bond debt, of $3.50, 900,
and keep this entire debt and the
cost of street construction confined
within these limits.
1t is said that Dyersburg has a city
tax rate of $685. and Meridian, Miss,
of nearly five dollars Perhaps the
assessment in these cities has never
been changed to the cash property
valuation like ours. Our assessment
is two and half times as much as it
was before.
We had held to the idea, like Mr..
Reynolds proposed last Tuesday
night, that the permanent street inn
provements in the first section should
be confined to the business part of
the city. That may yet be a better
plan. But, as stated before, an issue
of bonds to the amount of 100000
would not be excessive, and ii i'm
provements for that amount could be
extended beyond the business sec
tion, we should not object.
But there is one other point and |
that is more important than every
thing else connected with street i'm
provement combined.
That point is the letting of the
contract, provided the work is to be |
done by contract, and that seems to
be the intention of the Board of May
or and Aldermen.
If even small per cent of all the
reports is true, the government, the
State or the municipality, in making
a contract for road or street construc-
tion, is entering on dangerous
ground. So many reports of graftd
and melon cutting are made that it
is risk. We thoroly believe that 1t \
would be better If the Board of May !,
or and Aldermen would hunt the
country over and get a first-class
road man to superintend the con-
struction, man who has had practi-
cal experience in road construction,
man in blouses who knows the road
building game from the ground up.
Employ that man at a salary and
then enter the market as Independent
purchasers, buying from the supply
companies the best qualities at the
lowest prices, and then employ our
own idle people as near possible in
work. That policy was
pursued in the construction of the
Gibbs dirt road, and it is eminently