The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-11-30

II
 narfv-uninded will vote for the new charter. That's just about whaV happened in Waterbury back in iese prior to Vincent Scully's elec- ton to the mayoralty.
 However there's no gainsaying
 the fact that every American city
 in the next few years is going to
 have to scramble for it's tax
 money. Quoting again from the
 Municipal Finance News Letter
 there is Dallas, Texas, doubhng
 expenditures in the current year
 over those of l94O-4l; Schenec-
 tady. NY. l947 expenditures to
 exceed l946's by sc, Miami Beach,
 Fla. expenditures up 4SFo this
 year; Milwaukee. Wisconsin, Chome
 of good governmentl a new budget
 to be 69 per cent higher than the
 last prewar one; l9eo boost for
 Baltimore's budget over l94O; st.
 Louis, Mo. e Sl.400O0O deficit for
 the current fiscal year ending
 April 1. And so it goes down the
 line, And so it will so here in
 Connecticut, too. Waterbury a l.
 mill raise. perhaps: New Haven,
 three mills; Hartford, four to six;
 Bridgeport. it's a guess, aecord-
 ing to officials down there, but a
 raise Is inevitable.
 All of which doesn't make either Democratic or Republican political leaders in Waterbury feel to happy about l947 when the Republicans and Democrats are scheduled to square of in what is advertised to be the battle of the century. Much depends. of course, on what Town Chairman Maurice F. Tangney and other Democratic leaders can do between now and next Summer. If a pri- mary battle is averted, it will be due to a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the part of these leaders and will probbaly result in a l947 ticket that will show concessions being made to many different sides of the party. On the other hand Republicans aren't worrying too much about can- didates, but are concentrating on keeping alive certain issues they believe will embrasses the Demo- crats, not to mention fostering as well as they can any dlscontent among independent voters.
 The recently-prOpOSed city bud- get gives some indication of what
 Waterbury's borrowing capacity is
 at the present time. In the '3Os
 that was quite topic, but of late years hasn't popped into the headlines so much. The grant list on which borrowing capacity is figured consists of the taxable real and personal property plus the net exemptions. This totals SPAS, 100000 and brings Water bury's legal borrowing limit (5fo of S246, ,O00. .OO0) to more than S12,- O0O,0O0. This figure is more than double the city's general Obliga- tiOns right now and is so much in excess that the city never could exceed Its bond limit unless It went on the widest Of bOnd-selling orgies.
 Many reasons are being aScribed for the resignation of Supt. Herbert Scott Smith of the Street, Sewers, and Water Dept. Some think poli- tical pressure was applied by the AAonagan administration, but the truth of thes matter is Waterbury's winters have really made a sick man of the public works boss. He has told many close friends that he could not stand another Winter such as he had to experience during the var years when both men and equip ment were lacking, but the com- plaints never diminished one bit. When the final accounting is taken pf Waterburys public works bureau during the war years. it may be proved that Q tremendous job was