The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-17
soUANDERINC PUBLIC ASSETS


 Stripped of camouflage, politics, personal criticism and other confusing details which have been dragged into the controversy over the erection of a new courthouse for Jefferson county, some facts and figures are worth the serious consideration of the people who would bear the financial burdens, whether or no, If the program as out lined by a majority of the board of revenue should materialize. It is pro- posed to sell the present courthouse rite for about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be used in partial payment on the new building. Sub tracting from this sum the two hun dred and seventy-eight thousand dol lars paid for a proposed new site, and the debt of about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the present property, plus the architects fees, ap- praisal costs, transfer and other pre- liminary expenses, there would be practically nothing left with which to erect an adequate structure, such as would cost more than the million and half dollars suggested by the board.
 Thus sale of the present site at the price proposed would leave the people of Jefferson county in possession of a vacant lot without funds to erect the needful building. To prove how ridic- ulous is the proposed sale of the pres ent site for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, piece of property little more than a block from the county courthouse with a frontage of forty and depth of fifty feet, or two thousand square feet, recently sold for two hundred thousand dollars. The courthouse site comprises about forty times that space, with it's front, side and rear each along a thoroughfare. On a square footage valuation at half the rate of the other property men, toned, the courthouse site would have a value of four million dollars. If it be worth one-fourth as much, it should bring two million dollars. Kartus' Cor ner. seventy-five by one hundred feet, sold last week for a quarter of mil lion, only one block from the court house and on the same street! Yet the board of revenue actually considers selling over ten times that amount of land for only quarters of mil lion! Somebody will make profit out of that deal, but it will not be the public.
 The public servants cannot fail to consider these facts while entertaining the thought that new courthouse can be built without bond issue, by selling county warrants. That is subterfuge and evasion. There is no difference be- tween county warrants and bonds, ex- cept that the former carry much higher rates of interest because their pur- chasers regard them as less secure for the reason that the people who pay both principal and interest have not officially authorized them by vote. Every warrant which is issued places just that much more burden upon the taxpayers, and subtracts just so much from the margin of bonds which can be constitutionally issued. Thus war rants, with which to make permanent improvements, are actually bond issues unauthorized by the people and yet more burdensome, besides impairing, rather than improving, the public credit.
 The Age-Herald believes that the people of Jefferson county need. de- sire and should have . courthouse building adequate to serve the public purposes for fifty years or more. The Age-Herald believes that if all the facts are put before the people, and they are properly safeguarded as respects the character of structure to be erected, It's location, estimates of costs and assurance of economical ad- lninistration of the public funds, they would vote for the project within req sonable expenditures and conditions. The Age-Herald believes that the eco homie and other benefits from a joint county and city building should be carefully considered from the stand point of the public welfare before final decision in the courthouse mat ter. The Age-Herald is firmly con