The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-08-04

to GO tNe WOTK, 'WOuIu DC NoiS y AS'Ny to agree to pass up the job, since he has not yet started on it- that's why the mayor had not in- cluded the item in the budget he had submitted.
 Civic Insurance
 Regarding the civic insurance, It was generally agreed that the city has been very fortunate in not having any large liability claims brought against it in the past few vears-such luck is not likely to continue especially since streets and sidewalks are degenerating fast. Also, lack of such protection IS a bar to development of play lots which might otherwise be undertaken by service clubs.
 Mayor Parsons stated that the present system of hiring someone to mail out tax statements under the title of Assessor-a two or three month job each year-just doesn't work out There is plenty Tor a full time assessor to do to really keep the tax records up to date and see that all new property is put on the rolls. In addition, the Health Ordinance (No. 299) just recently passed, calls for sani- atary inspections and the City Building Code now being drafted provides for a Fire Marshal. Both of these are new jobs and could well be combined duties of a com petent man employed as assessor, the mayor stated.
 S327,.6l To;al Bill
 The three items, added to the s32l. .76l of expenditures the mayor had already outlined, would bring the budget to a new high total of s327, ,761; an additional s1,000 being required also to meet the bond retirement schedule.
 Principal objections to that esti- mated expenditure c a m Q from Councilmen Don Skuse and econ cmy- conscious Ed Nielsen. Council man Harry Lea made stand on principle, to the effect that only under protest" would he sign a budget including four particular items against, which he had cast his vote: Employment of utili- ties Engineer at s4s800, of an As sistant City Engineer at 5000, of an added stenographer at s170 month, and the budgeted item of Sl5,O00 for utility appraisal.
 Councilman Nielsen spoke his piece, that he could not see how he. could knowingly vote for a budget exceeding the possible reve- nues of the city for the year He pointed out that even at the maxi mum 20-mill rate on the entire Sl2,000,000 amount of the bitterly opposed new assessment, the city could receive only S240,000 from taxes. Adding in an approximate S65,000, which the city received from sources other than taxes last year, the total revenues would still fall far short of even $32l ,000
 That would pile another S20,00O on top of the $60,000 debt-now S70000 in bank borrowings-wh which was inherited by the present ad- ministration and would be illegal to pass along to the next party in power
 Previous Administrations
 Regarding the inherited 0,000 debt, Councilman Lea had, at the opening of the budget squabble, read the closing financial state ment of the previous city admins tration, which recorded a deficit of only S1,73102 = which he pointed out could have been converted into tidy penny in the bank had not the previous council voted to pur- chase the property for the new cemetery at $l8,000 Lea didn't like criticism he had heard concerning the previous administration, of which he was a part.
 Councilman Lea neglected to mention, however-as was pointed out by the mayor later-that the previous council had also con- tracted for the present administra- tion to pay EvalHator Howard s. Henretta nearly S10,000, had pur- chased piling Billed to the present council and had left school pay ment of $25,000 owing.
 Other evidence of expenditures by previous administrations was called upon as the budget discus sion got underway. As a compara- tive figure, estimated expenditures for l944-45 were listed as S280, ,473 Last years budget called for S251. : 543.
 Councilman Nielsen asked for budget figures on a year under Former Mayor Harry Lucas ad- ministration. For the year l942- 43 the budget was stated by Mayor Parsons at Sl75,00o and actual ex- penditures, S223,84l
 At last delving into ways and means of peeling down that S327,- GOO figure. the council questioned the need for a sixth police pa- trolman-but Police Chief John Monagle justified that satisfac- torily.