Year: 1879




The city tax rate for 1879 is two dollars
and sixty cents on the one hundred dol
lars Of valuation. 1t ought to be much
less, and could be considerably decreased
by capable and honest management of our
municipal affairs but as it is, with a fall
ing off of about four and half millions in
the net valuation, two dollars and sixty
cents rate will be accepted as an improve
ment on the past. With reduction Of the
high salaries now fixed by law, simplifica-
ton of the machinery of the city govern
ment, the adjustment of number of USE
less offices, the consolidation of bureaus and
stricter accountability in the expenditures
for supplies, construction, and 30 forth, in
many of the departments, the rate of taxa
tion might easily be reduced below two per
cent on the present valuation. Unfor-
tunately there has been no honest desire
or intention to effect such economies
in the administration Of our city
aged with ability and good judgment, but
the demands OF party on the municipal pat
ronage are as pressing and as potent as
ever, and we are yet to see the first attempt
of q business Mayor to run the executive
branch of the government on the much
talked of "business principles" which made
the capital of his party in the last munich
pal election.


The valuation of real estate this year
shows an increase of nearly seventeen and o
half millions over 1873. and there are no un-
usual complaints of generalization. This is
a promising indication, inasmuch as the
advantages of rapid transit and other inn
provements have not yet been felt in real
estate to any great extent, and will no doubt
within the next three or four years materially
enlarge the area Of assessment. At the same
time the valuation Of personal property has
decreased since last year nearly twenty
two millions, or about four millions and o
half more than the increase in real estate
valuation. This is not the least gratifying
feature of the exhibit. The heavy annual
DEFICIENCIES in the tax levy which caused SO
much embarrassment, litigation and decep-
ton under the former management of the
Finance Department, were due to the in
discriminate assessment of personal prop
erty, made for the purpose of reducing the
tax rate and covering up the continued
extravagance of the government Every
thing that could be tortured into personal
estate was pressed into the valuation, and
the consequence was that as soon as an
annual tax was imposed claims for exemp-
tions by the million poured into the Tax
Commissioners Office and were allowed.
This left the tax collections short and ap-
preparations unsupplied, and led to suits
against the city which were factiousy
fought to the last moment and then
paid through appropriations for judgments,
the cost of the unwise policy thus falling
upon the people in the end. The more the
city's personal estate valuation is brought
down to "hard pan" which cannot evade
the payment Of taxes the less will be the
always be relied upon and would be col
lected more promptly and at less cost than
it is if we could get rid of the jobbery and
corruption still clinging about the ''arrear-
ages" machinery of tho city government
In few years time the effect of rapid
transit, and, it is to be hoped, judicious
public improvements in other directions,
will so increase the value of real estate in
New York as to add materially to the pres
ent valuation. If with this advantage we
secure q business-like, economical city gov
ernment and an entirely reliable valuation
OF personal properly, our taxation will be so
trifing as to attract capital to the city to
give an impetus to building investments
and all other business, and to make New
York the cheapest Us it already is the most
attractive place of residence in the United
States.


PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE.