The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1921-11-04
WHY NOT REFUNDING BONDS?

Up in Benuett county they are now
agitatiug the matter of voting bonds
for the purpose of refunding that
county's outstanding warrant indebt.
edness, which at this time amounts to
1000. The proposition seems t.
be meeting with almost unanimous
support in that county.
Just about year ago we called the
attention Of our readers to this matter
in our own county and advocated the
issuing of bonds to refund our out
standing warrant Indebtedness, which
at that time amounted to Sl26,236.
We tried to show that the present
system was a losing game for every
one iE this county except those who
bought TIE warrants at big discount
Ia the Auditors and Treasurers
quarterly statement for the quarter
ending September 30th, 1921, we note
that the outstanding county warrants
and those in the hands OF the Auditor
now total $lG4,C27l3. This is net
increase in our outstanding warrant
Indebtedness of Sa8, $50. 90 in the past
year. Besides this warrant indebted
ness we have bonded Indebtedness
of $4,000, but we also have on de-
post in the various banks in the coun
ty ST 200 in the way Of sinking
fund to take care Of the bonded debt,
so in reality We are only in the hole
about Sl3,S00 on this bonded debt,
with the exception that we are paying
six per cent interest on the bonded
debt and are only receiving five per
cent on the sinking fund that is de-
posted with the banks and which will
eventually be used to pay off the
bonded debt.
The outstanding warrant indebted
ness which or October lst, 1927 "a
mounted to Sl6l027 l3, draws inter
est at the rate of seven per cent per
annum, or in other words now repre-
sents an annual interest bill on out
standing warrants alone, that our
tax payers must pay, of 81 ,4Sl SO.
But all the above is not the worst
feature of this condition. Forinstance,
at the October meeting OF the County
Commissioners they paid the claims
of l75 persons, and of this number
l63 were residents of the county.
Now there are few, if any, residents
of this county, drawing ady pry from
the county, that are financially able
to carry these warrants until they ma
ture, aud therefore they are compelled
to sell them for what ever they are Of
fered, which runs all the way from 10
to 2S per cent less than face value.
At a discount of even 10 per cent our
present warrant indebtness represents
loss of over Sl6,400-and this loss in
the most part is born by our own peo-
pie who are paving the taxes that will
fnall pay off the original indebted
ness. There are no warrants being
issued by the county at this time that
will be called for payment uuder two
years, and some OF them will not be
called for from four to six years.
One of the heavy items of expense
/, in this county during the past two
years or more has been our road build
ing program, but while the money out
lay has been heavy, yet we are getting
tangible results, and we believe that
ia the end it will be money we'll spent
So far the state has contributed 81 1000
towards our road building program,
and we understand that we are cow a
bout due to receive 81 900 more from
this same source, which of course will
tend to reduce our warrant indebted
ness to that extent.