Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-10-31
An Answer To
Mr.. Creenwald's
Pamphlet:

me to task for my letter in the Askov
American of September S, 1910.
By your own statement, Mr.. Green
valid, in your pamphlet you have
proven that l have told the truth
and that my statement was correct.
l wonder if you think that the voters
will fall for your bunk.
1 said that the taxes have raised
in the last two or three years APP
proXimately SIS to $40 per home, or
farm, annually. In your pamphlet
you prove that on my farm in Pine
Lake township, and you know that
the taxes are even higher in other
cases, but you failed to tell us why
the tax rate Of Pine county has raised
from 33 23 mills in 1886 to 64.08 mills
in 1889. You also try to show in
your pamphlet that you paid off $142,-
639.07 outstanding warrants which
you claim that you inherited when
you took office, and paid those war
rants out of the $4,000 bond issue.
This is very erroneous statement
and l am surprised that you are not
better posted.
l wish to call your attention to the
fact that the county aid fund is taken
care of entirely by the gas tax and
none Of those was paid out of the
$180,0O0 bond issue. The county board
can not spend or overdraW this fund
over and above the anticipated amount
that it will receive for the year from
the gas tax. Some of this money
comes in August and the biggest part
comes in February after the gas tax
is collected so the gas money was not
in when you took office January l
1887, and the county auditor makes
his annual report on December 81,
1886, so this gas tax money was not
in until some time in February, 1887,
with which you were supposed to
take up the warrants that you claim
you inherited.
The Road and Bridge Fund in
which you show an oVerdraft and
claim that you inherited, works the
same way. The county receives one
mill tax from the state and this money
comes in sometime in March, so the
county did not have this money on
December 81, 1889. But when this
money was all received then the
outstanding warrants were paid as
far as the money would go; but at
no time were any county aid war
rants paid out of any other fund only
the gas tax fund and that's the
county aid
The ditch fund is another fund that
is taken care of by special assess
ment made by the county auditor
on the adjoining and benefited prop
erty by the county ditch. So if you
will get your figures straight you
will find that the county on Janu-
airy l, 1887, when you took office was
in fairly good financial condition. The
banks were cashing county warrants
at par in the year of 1878 but
when the auditors annual report
came in 1888 the banks got scared
and refused to cash any more war
rants at par, and then you bonded the
county for $4,000 and now you
would have the voters believe with
your pamphlet that you are doing
wonders on the county board.
Your statements are so unfounded.
so ridiculous that 1 will not go into
any more details about the rest of
your pamphlet, don't think that you
are fooling anybody, only yourself
Everybody in the Fourth COM
missioner district knows how much
| in,
four years. And everybody also
knows that the welfare board of
Pine county has taken over the poor,
old age assistance, mothers aid to
dependent children, relief and so
forth, which before you took office
was taken care of by the poor fund
which you are making so much noise
about, and your own statement in
your pamphlet shows that you levied
$4,000 for 1941 for this same pur-
pose. AS to the poor farm, you are
boasting about that you made very
substantial saving there. l think that
we could just as well discontinue
the poor farm; the horse and buggy
days are gone and everybody from
the poor farm is also gone, so why
even talk about the poor farm?
The point is that you want to get
reelected, Mr.. Greenwald, and you
have made too many mistakes on
the county board, and you don't
seem to be very well enlightened on
county affairs and therefore you are
trying to cover up by putting the
blame on past county boards and the
engineers office. 1 think that you
should know that the engineer is
governed entirely by the county board
and he cannot spend any money I'M
less authorized by the county board.
Engineer Jorgensen built m any
miles of road in this county before
you took office and the county was
on a cash basis all that time, so what
were you doing while Jorgensen spent
all that money that you are talking
about and while you were on the
board and before you m d e the
change in that office?
The indebtedness of the county
loo ;oox2ocoI 1nn mn