The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-04-07
Barrett Find Tangle

Chief Examiner Orr of the State board OF &C
counts has started another movement to stra1ghten
out the Barrett Law tangle, which costs Indian
ano1is taxpavers no one seems to know how much
every year.
About everyone in authority has tried to I'M
snar1 the mess in the last fifteen years The net
result has been to make matters worse Perhaps
Orr will get somewhere. Certainly the taxpayers
will not object to Orr's experts having fling at II.
The Barrett law permits property owners Oh
small means to pay for street. alley, sidewalk ana
sewer improvements in ten annual instalments.
The contractor is paid with bonds issued upon
the property owners promise to pay the ten lns'a
ments The property owners pay the interest on
the bonds.
In Indianapolis the county treasurer serves as
ctv treasurer, ex-offcio Under the law payments
~ Rarrett law bonds must be turned over to the
treasurer.
Bv a queer quirk in law, in which Federal
Court decision of 1908 figures, the treasurer cannot
denosit these Barrett law payments along with other
ci+1 funds but must keep them separate as trust
fund with himself as trustee. He is speclncaIy ac-
countable to no one for them. All ne must 90 Is
nav off the bonds and interest coupons WHEN 1neS
fall due He can carry anywhere from one 10 Iour
million dollars around in his vest pocket, II ne
cares to- according to Orr
OF course county treasurer ndo o00A 'H"o
careless Instead the treasurers have deposited
tho money in banks under their as trustee.
And the treasurer collects the interest Ihls
rms from $4,000 to $4,000 year. Another queer
loyal ourl1 enters The law does not provide what
shall be done with this money So far as the law
is concerned the county treasurers can keep 1t Tor
their own.
Some treasurers have actually tried to find
wav to put this money in the public treasury but
the lawyers tell them there is no way to do It, AT
any rate the public does not get the interest.
Meanwhile another funny thing happens Many
persons become prosperous and desire to pay off
the Barrett law debt before the ten years is up in
order to save interest. The treasurer must accept
their navpnent but he cannot retire the bonds until
the full ten year course has been run This leaves
the interest coupons the bonds falling uue
regularly without the property owner meeting
them.
The result over long period of years has been
the accumulation of large deficit in the fund
The 1929 Legislature tried to cure the evil by
passing law which provided that the city con-
troller not the treasurer should be the custodian
of the fund and that he should invest the money
received on payments in sound securities OF suffi-
cient interest value to meet the payments on bonds
upon which property owners paid out before the
end of the ten-year- period.
The cheers had hardly subsidized nor the ink
dried on the bill until that Federal Court decision
rose up to defy the efforts of the lawmakers That
Barrett Law fund trust and the treasurer
was the trustee under the Federal Court decision
and the city controller simply couldn't lay his hands
on the money to invest it in securities.
No one seems to know just what condition the
fund is in. Very likely the county treasurer himself
would like to know just how it stands.
SO the matter rests, a fertile field for Orrs
examiners to dig in.