The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-06-14
COUNTY DELINQUENT TAX LIST
lEditoriall

authortativey informed, has awarded the pubica-
ton of the delinquent tax list bids, and far
can be learned it has never been given out on bids in
the history of the state. ,t
One of the informants Russell Kay secretary of
the Florida Press Association wired The Citizen that
it is illegal to have the list published for an amount
less than that provided by law.
Secretary McEwen, of the Associated Dailies of
Florida, also advised The Citizen that nowhere in the
state are bids to print the delinquent tax list called
for but every instance the newspaper is designated
for that purpose.
The purpose of the phrase, mot more than
used in the law was and still is to prevent any paper
from charging more than that sum.
The result has been that uniform rate has al
ways been charged in Florida since that law has been
on the statute books.
Whether it would be legal to charge less than
that is question that has never been decided,
because no newspaper has ever charged less How
ever, Mr.. Kay is not alone in believing that lower
rate would be illegal
The procedure always has been for the board of
county commissioners to designate official organ
for the county and to have the delinquent tax list
published in that organ at the legal rate.
In counties where there are two more DAILY
newspapers commissioners alternate in the designa-
ton of the official organ.
each other or one another, the case may be, and
the proposal to compel a DAILY to bid against a
weekly had never been preached until the Monroe
county commissioners at their last regular meeting
decided to ask for bids--something that had never
been done in the state before-from The Citizen,
DAILY paper, and from of the weeklies pub
lished in Key West disadvantage in which no
other daily newspaper in the state has ever been
placed.
fare ara Soma If the disadvantages .
The Citizen is published every day in the week
except Sunday; the weekly, of course. is published
once week;
The Citizen has the expense of the Associated
Press news service, the best in the world the weekly
has no expense in that regard;
The Citizen has TWENTY-FIVE persons on its
payroll the weekly has three;
The Citizen is an institution in Key West--it has
been published here for FIFTYFOUR years; the
weekly has been published three and one-half years.
and is the THIRD paper in the field
incidentally, The Citizen was among the last
corporations in the country to reduce wages. held
out as long as it could but with two weekly papers
as competitors, it forced to cut its payroll to
survive.
However before The Citizen took that action it
tried in every way possible keep in effect the
salaries it paid during the boom years. One Of its
first acts to reduce the size of the paper from
eight six pages and later on, with the competition
Of the weeklies still continuing, to four pages
Finally the cut in salaries had to come The Citi
zen would have had to become weekly also
With only the advertising patronage accorded it
in Key West to depend on The Citizen, long since,
would have had to 60 into the weekly field. 1t was
possible for it to continue in the daily field because
of the foreign and legal advertising it received, but
now with the threat of its losing the largest of its
.leRals' for which it is paid-it has been than
five years since the city of Key West has paid The
Citizen for publishing the delinquent tax list, it,
survival as daily hangs in the balance.
Getting the delinquent tax list published at
rate less than that provided by law is not economy
measure so far the taxpayer is concerned II does
not cost him penny. The money is advanced by the
state and is later collected BY II from the DELIN-
QUENT taxpayer when he redeems his real estate,
NOT from the taxpayer.
Finally. il ii fair to compel The Citizen,
DAILY to bid against WEEKLY: to compel The
Citizen which has been the Official Organ Of Monroe
county for many years 70 he the ONLY newspaper In
the state to bid for the publication Of the delinquent
tax list