The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-26

Mayor Vincent A. Scully and Con troller Thomas M. Conlon angril! retorted as Eddie Udelowitz, letter writer extraordinary, and Attorne! Michael J. Galullo, city court pros ecutor, repeated their accusation that figures given out by the ad ministration are false; Senato Michael V. Blansfeld, presiding a the hearing, took part in severa sharp exchanges with the pair Senator Clarence P. Baldwin, rank ing Republican member, took nt pains to hide his disgust; Alois J Pfannenstiel, senior accountant fol the state tax department, was tolt by MT. Galullo that he had no bus iness ct the hearing; and the after. noon was climaxed when majorit, of the committee members walked out of the room rather than lister to any more.
 The bill which was supposed tc be heard was talked of only a small part of the time, the rest of the session being devoted to such, ques. tions as how much John H. Goss should pay in taxes. whether the city had a surplus last year, at- tempts to define floating debt ant the intelligence of the witnesses ano committee members.
 The principal victim of the un. ceasing flow of words was the com mittee's stenographer, who can cal 1t @ miracle if she hasn't got writer's cramp today.
 Limit Borrowing
 Opening the hearing MT. Udelo. witz asserted that Waterbury has 8 floating debt of $2,500,000 and that the practice of borrowing in arltici- patton of taxes can be stopped only by limiting the amount of such bor- rowing, as proposed in his bill.
 Senator Blansfleld at once dis puted this claim, saying that the city has no floating debt and that the amount of the tax anticipation loan outstanding is $1,l50,O00.
 No, sir" said Eddie. "The city's money was gone in December or it wouldn't have had to borrow any money. The surplus that they're talking about doesn't exist"
 Senator Baldwin then interrupted to point out that there is a five month "time lag" since the city starts its fiscal year January 1 but tax payments do not begin to come in until May 1. The solution, he said, is to bring those two dates closer together gradually and that when they both were January 1 there would be no need for tax an- ticipation loans.
 "The method you propose is very cumbersome" Senator Baldwin told MT. Udelowitz.
 "There was a bill of mine passed here some years ago which cor- rected the situation" said Eddie "but every session the city would get it waived. Then two years ago Sen- ator Culhane put through a whole houseful of bills and mine got lost in the shuffle."
 No Evidence
 As Eddie went on to claim that the city hasn't been paying off its tax anticipation notes, Senator Baldwin banged his fist down on the table and shouted:
 "There is no such evidence before this committee"
 Eddie changed back then, and pre- dicted that the city would raise funds to pay bills by borrowing from the $2,000000 bond issue au- thorized by the assembly last week.
 That bond issue is for specific purposes, written down in black and white," said Senator Baldwin. "If the money is spent for any thing else the people responsible will go to jail"
 Senator Baldwin inquired of Eddie why he had fixed the borrowing limit at $300,000, and Eddie said blandly:
 well, I'm willing to negotiate. Perhaps who can change 1t few hundred thousand either way"
 This brought down the house. Eddie then went into a favorite sub- ject, the underassesmen of prop erty in Waterbury.
 '"My friend, MT. Galullo, is we'll informed on that subject and he can tell you a lot about It."
 "If he's so well informed, why don't you elect him mayor?" asked Senator Baldwin.
 Soak the Rich?
 We have lot of tea lots in Waterbury" said Eddie, ignoring the question. lots that they gave away 25 to 30 years ago when you promised to buy so many pounds of tea and on which years of taxes are due. The thing for Waterbury to do Is to have MT. Goss disgorge a little more money in taxes. and MT. Chase and the American Brass Co.," "Then your theory is to soak the rich?" inquired Senator Blansheld. Mot exactly" answered Eddie, tt1N,tt GaNuil1Sc nNt.ld ,Haxy ,,anta