The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-28

the sewer and street departments, and the amount of the City's in- debtedness.
 MT. Culhane mas made the imaginary discovery that there are discrepancies between the figures gave you and the figures which are @ matter of public record. I am not to blame if MT. Culhane can not, and will not, understand an auditors state- ment.
 Let us take these alleged dis coveries of MT. Culhane, in order. said that the City appropriated in round numbers almost two mil- lion dollars for the department of education. MT. Culhane leaped upon that statement and said that I reported to the State Tax Department an expenditure of only one million six hundred and fifty three thousand dollars for education. He wishes to know how I account for the difference of $340,000. Here's the account made by the certified public account ants who audit the City's books. Board of Education Ex-
 penSe ............. @l,Ooo,0o1. 1.oS Board of Education
 Salary Donation .. 159,522.21 Interest & Redemption
 School Bonds l84 O5O, ,OO Total ...............$l, ,996, ,9o3. .84
 Therefore I repeat that the Education Department costs the City of Waterbury in round num- bers two million dollars a year.
 Repeats Statement
 Let us take MT. Culhane's sec- ond imaginary discovery. He thought he caught me out on the end of the limb when I said that the street and sewer departments required about $750,000 of the 1886 appropriations. He said I reported to The State Tax Department that one million, three hundred thousand dollars was spent. SO, he wishes to know why one mill lion, three hundred thousand dol- lars was spent when all that was needed was $75o,ooo.
 repeat that % of a million dollars is needed to carry on the work of the street and sewer de- partments.
 However during the depression the City cooperated with the Fed eral agencies and so incurred the extraordinary expense of over $2,000,000 which I mentioned in the concluding paragraph of my first radio talk. Let me repeat that paragraph.
 "In conclusion I say this-with assessed valuations reduced $6,- 100000 since 1929, with q taxe rate of 3ls mills (which is the lowest since 1922), with the necessity of spending over $2,000,000 to match federal grants during the depres- sion, with $3,500,000 expended by the city for welfare work during the depression and with a reduce ton of $l,700,oo0 in the city's in- debtedness since we took office and with the city's credit rating the highest 1t has ever been--- THEN-I say with justifiable pride that this, as every fair. minded citizen will admit, is the establishment of a real and most worthy financial record for any administration"
 Naturally the amounts ex- pended by the City had to be charged to the departments un- der whose jurisdiction the work was done. In this particular case the Street Department.
 The third imaginary discovery of MT. Culhane is this: "Nlr. Leary claims debt reduction of $1,700,- 900 since the administrator took office. That is a downright, deliberate falsehood." Mir. Cul- hane is a better judge of what constitutes a downright, deliber- ate falsehood than I am.
 I repeat my statement that the City debt has been reduced $1,- 100000 since our administration took office.
 Here's Proof
 And here is the proof. I have before me statement from George H. Kingsley Co.,, of N. r., Certified Public Accountants, who audited the City's accounts long before I became City Comptroller AND permit me to read their statement.
 Wednesday,
 September 22, 1897. MT. Daniel J. Leary, Comptroller City of Waterbury Waterbury, Connecticut Dear Sir:
 Complying with your request, we have made an examination of the books and records of the City of Waterbury which reflect 6 debt reduction of 03,066.39 from January list, 1880 to date.
 This auditors statement should settle once and for all who is guilty of telling downright, delib-