The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-12
Politics
 -M- Passing

z Passing l ! Waterbury political leaders are re. ported as having burned the wires between this city and Hartford dur ing the past week over matters oi patronage. Both Democrats anc Republicans are said to be incensed over the course matters pertaining to this city are taking in the Capi- tol. Some time ago Democratic leg islators were informed that if they predominated in city or town they would receive the major share ot court patronage. According to cur rent rumors quite the opposite is now planned for certain commu- mites and Waterbury is apt to be one of them. All of which doesn't set well with Waterbury's four Democratic legislators, as well as local leaders, who are finding it hard enough to stave of the per- Sistent efforts of local Democratic lawyers to land choice court plums. ! The victory of Warden Leo
 Brophy of Naugatuck this past
 week was 8 well-earned one for
 this popular public official.
 Warden Brophy has proved to be
 an extremely able and popular
 official. He is definitely pro
 gressive type of public servant
 and his administration of the
 borough affairs has proved this
 to be true. It's not to be won
 dered at that he was reelected
 by a whooping big ma ajority which
 proved conclusively that Nauga-
 tuck has not lost it's place in the
 sun. as a Democratic stamping
 ground.
 It begins to look as if Waterbury might have it's state tax of ap- proximately s8l ,0O0 abated this year A year ago the city paid the state $81 281 .19, but if a bill now before the Legislature is approved this would be abated. And the reason would be that Waterbury qualities for such an abatement by virtue ot the fact that it's educational load per pupil is $1OO or more Under the pending legislation it is pro- posed to do away with the state tax and to make such funds avail able for educational purposes. If the per pupil load was less than $l00 the city could still qualify by agreeing to add $S1 900 to it's school department budget. Presumably only pupils Of public schools will be counted to determine the aver age expenditure, but the city, like all other towns, will continue to receive school grants on the basis of total school population-public, parochial, and private
 Meriden was mentioned at vari-
 ous times as one of several com
 munities that might be interested
 in an airport that would be To- oated some place between this city, Meriden, and Bristol. But right nsw it would seem as if the Sil- yer City had ideas of it's own on
 aa airport. The municipality re- oentIy bought 30 acres of land in Yalesville. which will be used for airport purposes. The city paid s3,200 for the land, using money in a capital improvement fund
 to do so. Plans have also been made for floating a $50.000 airport bond issue and the fund will be reimbursed from such proceeds.
 The question of paying election day workers has been brought up here in Waterbury on several occa- sions in recent years, due to the difficulty in securing experienced workers at rates that weren't some what commensurate with industrial wages. New Haven will hold a spe- cial probate judge election in June and the city has set up its election machinery for the event. Listed among the $5 ,85450 election day eX- penses were items showing what workers to man the polling places would receive. They included chief moderator. $25; assistant registrars, $10; ward moderators. $10 check CTS, s8, cinallengers, $6; machine men, $6. With the exception of the chief moderator these rates are lower than those paid in Water bury in the last few elections. It may be explained by the fact that hoe dic- tricts, requiring more officials. and also employs challengers. which this city doesn't have nor both modera- tors and assistant registrars in the same number
 Long lines of taxpayers at the windows of Waterburys tax col lector's office of recent weeks indi- cate willingness and a desire on the part of local residents to set tie up their accounts early. And also-in full. For a ma ajority of those paying their taxes have taken advantage of the city's of fer of a discount. That's one of the reasons the line seems to move so slowly. Each day a diff feent discount rate prevails, which the clerks set on their bill- ing machines. But as each bill varies in amount it takes few minutes to figure the exact dis count, make change, and receipt the bill. It might be interesting, too, for the average taxpayer of Waterbury to know that the dis count granted in 1944 amounted to $3l,2l4. That's a lot of money