10/27/1926 Board of Public Works Minutes

Home Browse Search

222 Wednesday., October. !h., . V928. I To the Board of Public A".rks., South Bend, Indiana. Gentlemen: October 26th. , I926 ou.have complied splendidly with my insistant demands I throughout the last nine months that you economize and save constantly with respect bo all city expenditures but hereafter necessity requires that you cut to the, very bone. A pre -election pledge to the public is not to be spoken and then forgotten. Our pledge furnished a prime reason for my insistance pon a course of economy. But a second very important reason was the fact that the common council last year reduced t1e general fund tax levy fcr this year in the rather extreme amount of four cents, thus supplying a much less income from taxes this year, and obliging some very close figuring to defray the city's operating expenses for the year. While the City spent last year.$I,237,000.00, we were provided this year a total estimated income of but I,I4I,000.00.- Including the gasoline tax, which comes from the state, the total is $I,I66,000.00, or a total income of $71.000400 less than was spent last year'. It is gratifying:.: to=: know that you have spent, or will by the end of the year, considerably less this year than last, notwithstanding the greater developement and activity in the city during this year than ever before. It should be said in full justice, that the Common. Council of last year is not to be censured for tbducirg--the levy for• this year as it did, since it might have been a fair assumption that things would be slower this year in South Bend and less money would therefore, be needed. It simply happened that things. -did not slow down, but the very contrary occured, even though we did save in pity :expenditures.. It is to 'th.e credit of three members of the council of last year, who were re-elected, that they voted unanimous approval of the buget presented for next year. Nine of the ten members were present on that evening, and the entire nine, after full consider- tion, voted affirmatively for the buget, without an objection. A growing, enlarging city naturally increaces the cost of city government, or maintenance. In IM the net disbursements of the city amounted to 478,000.00. By I925 it had riseb to the figure, above stated, of I.237,000.00, or an average yearly increase of $I08,000.00. With all of the expansion and growth of the City this year, we accomplished an actual decrease. . We have track elevation on our hands, which will mean large bond issues .in the near future, notwithstanding the cost is materially reduced by combining the two elevations in one. The bonded indebtedness of the city in the last few years has leaped upward at a rapid rate. In I9I8 the total bonded debt o the City stood at 435,500.00. In I925 the debt climbed to 3,078,000.00 or an average increase yearly of #232,000.00. The present indebtedness, together with the necessary additional debt to come with track elevation, presented a condition for serious reflection. It impelled a course, as we believed, of resorting to bond issues as sparingly as possible_ for a few years, due to the two percent. constitutional!: limit, which we were rapidly approaching. It would be unwise to approach the constitutional limit too closely. Deciding upon such a course, though denying the city as a consgquence, of certain needs, no bonds whatever, were issued this year, the first time in eight years that no City bonds have been issued for city expenses. No one will deny the growth and activity that occured in South Bend this year. Noo-ne-Muld foreenst at this time, -less growth and developement for next year. et the council, urged to continue economy of expenditures, actually dixed a budget, or total appropriations, for next year in a less amount that the total ^ppropriations for this year. Last Friday, the State Tax Board acted upon a petition objecting to the tax levy as fixed by council for nextm which stated as the reason for such objection "That the amounts to be collected on the levies so fixed are more than government economically admistered warrants". The Board's order reduced the levy a full four cents. It is possible to carry the denial of pity needs and improvements to a point where it ceaces to become a virtue. .hIready in our first nine months, warnings have been received, Fnd from conservative sources, that we are holding down city expenditures too closely for the city's best welfare. At the recent hearing before the Mate Tax. Board, I, urged, asimpre.ssively as I knew how against VL red tion f t e inting out that our present.indebtedness, iogeth.er with a large rae e��v ti8fi • C]