New-York tribune., 1921-09-10
MaximumLeyy
of 10 Mills Instead of
Present 40 Tax on ALI
Real, Personal Property
Take Politics Out
Of Our Education
Candidate Would Place
Entire Control i'm Hands
ofBoardto BetlerSystem

H..
followed up his outline of transit
plan for the city with the fundame ntals
OF school plan last night, carrying
his Mayoralty campaign into Queens
and Kings counties. He would fix a
maximum, instead Of a minimum tax
rate for educational purposes. he said.
and make the Board of Education re-
sponsble for all educational affairs.
subject only to the control of the Leg
lslature, so long as it kept within it's
tax limit.
The maximum tax rate suggested bv
Mr.. Curran for the schools is 10 mills
or one cent OH every taxable dollar in
the city, whether invested in real estate
or personal property. The present rate
is minimum rate and is 40 mills on
every dollar.
Instead of the minimum Of 40 mills
OF every taxable dollar of real and per
sonal estate in the city that the Board
o. EstImate is required to appropriate
annually for Schools said Mr.. Curran.
ii would suggest that we establish a
maximum rate of 10 mills, within
which the Board of Education shall
have practically complete control, sub
Ject to regulation by the Legislature
as prescribed in the constitution.
Present Levy Held Inadequate
"a minimum of less than one-half of
each cent out of every dollar for taxes
has been outgrown by the general
march of educational and economic
events, so that this requirement is
really meaningless. The administra-
tion at the City Hall has become prac-
tically. the arbiter of what the schools
may spend.
81 do not believe in this minimum
provision. do not think it has done
any good. If you raise it, do not
think it will do any good. Either it
will be more than the schools need or
1t will not be enough, and you might
just as well abolish it altogether.
l have suggested maxi
mum.
"At the present time 10 mills, that
IS, one penny of every dollar of locally
taxable values in the city, | thinl Will
take ia care of al, the probable expenses
If it be not enough, the Legislature
may, overnight, change it.
$50 long as the Board of Education
lives within this limit of one penny Of
every dollar for the schools, I should
let 1t have the responsibility and CON
troll. | would include in its expendi-
lures all the current educational ex-
penses and the annual expenses for in
terest on and amortization of the city's
debt for schools already built, being
built and to be built"
His plan. Mr.. Curran said, would
operate largely to remove the schools
from politics and end once and for all
the pickering between the Board of
Education and the Board OF Estimate
which "woud be comic, if it were not
tragic"
In the matter of tax collection, he
said, he would have two thirds of the
taxes collected fn May instead of one
half, thus saving on borrowing charges
for the city, and would collect the other
one-third in November, including the
school tax among those to be collected
in November.
County Republican Club the Forest
Hills Republican Club in Queens, the
22d Assembly District Republican Club
of Brooklyn, the Kings County Repub-
lican Club and at the Kracke meeting
at the 10th Assembly District Repub-
lican Club in Brooklyn.
Office of Great Responsibility
He said that among his qualifca-
lions for the office for which he was
seeking the nomination were the fact
that he was the designee of the Re-
publican party; that he already had
served in every branch of the city
government. and that he regarded the
office OF Mayor as one of tremendous
honor and of tremendous respcnsi-
bility.
1t was three times as important an
office as that of the Governor of this
state, said Mr.. Curran. and, nationally
considered, was second in Importance
only to the Presidency of the nation.
He had been a city magistrate. he
pointed out; an alderman, had been
acting Mayor, and now was Borough
President of Manhattan. whereas his
opponents in the race for the nomi
ration had, with the exception of
President La Guardia of the Board of
Aldermen, taken no part in city gov
eminent.
He doubted, he said, whether Judge
Haskell or Mr.. Bennett ever had "spent
five minutes in the City Hail.
'F'iorello La Guariis," said Mr. Cur
ran. "served in the Board of Estimate.
where he sat next to me for year and
q half, but ! am afraid Eiorello is not