The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, October 24, 1912, Page 3

Is Bates County Falling Behind Other Counties Because it is Saddled with a System of Local Government which Promotes Waste, Debt and Extravagance? CAN BATES COUNTY PAY OFF HER INDEBTEDNESS AND MAKE ANY ADVANCEMENT UNDER ITS PRESENT SYSTEM OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT? If Other Counties are Going Ahead, Why Has Bates County Gone Behind ? SOME FACTS. b The taxpayers of Bates county are now paying the highest limit of taxes permitted by the law. Bates county is now more than $50,000 in debt. Bates county is paying out in interest upon its in- debtedness more than $3,000 per year without one penny of advantage to the county. Other counties in the state are making substantial and permanent road and bridge improvements. Bates county is making none and can make none until its debts are paid. Many counties are levying less than the tax rate permitted by law. The tax rate in Bates county is only limited by the highest rate permitted under the laws. of the state. Bates county is paying its share of the state road, automobile and other taxes which is being spent in other counties without township organization. Not ene penny comes back to Bates county. Bates county is maintaining 120 extra offices whose salaries and fees range from $600 per year down. Is it any wonder that taxes are placed at the highest limits? Bates county pays in this year for county and town- ship purposes, not counting schools, railroad bonds and city purposes, $115,000. Of this the county court ex- pends less than half. What are you getting for it and what have you got to show for thirty years of the system? Bates county wastes annually in salaries to small offices, interest upon its outstanding warrants, waste and extravagance, loss of interest upon deposits, extra cost of assessment and collection, and a dozen other leaks, not less than $25,000. What do you get in re- turn for this immense‘sum? At the end of the year there will not be one stroke of a pen upon any public record in your court house to show where one penny of $59,000 was spent. The annual report of the township trustee is UPON SCHOOL FUNDS ONLY and but four men in each township ever see the books which are kept to show how $59,000 is spent. If the landowners of counties under county organ- ization are building permanent roads, of which the state pays one-half the cost, what is the matter with Bates which is paying the limit of taxes allowed by the law and in which the county court is struggling to pay off an indebtedness of $52,000 ganization and its results? A petition, signed by the required number of voters, has been present- ed to the county court and in ac- cordance with the law the court has ordered the question of TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION submitted to the voters at the November election. ~ The question will be, SHALL BATES COUNTY HAVE TOWN- SHIP ORGANIZATION? You, the Taxpayers and Voters of the county, will decide by your ballots whether er Bates shall forsake twenty coun- ties of the state and follow the ex- ample of ninty four and do away with a cumbersome, wastefyl system piled up by township or- look at it from the standpoint of your own pocketbook, the interest of your own county and consequent- ly of your own property interests in it. The following statement of facts the other side be also proven. | Taxation in Bates County. ‘The total assessed valuation of Bates county isabout $12,400,000. The | penditure of every cent is made out}back to Bates county. YOU ARE qt dnaiie we ends 4 aah upon{and published in some newspaper |HELPING PAY FOR GOOD ROADS the $100, bringing in a county revenue | and for fifty years back you still have) IN ONE OF THE NINETY-FOUR of (including Merchants, etc.)- $51,- ue to pay every running expense of $54,155.67. Twenty five per cent of this or $13,538.91 goes to the bridge fund, which is right now $52,594.28 overdrawn. The remaining seventy five per cent goes to the salaries, contingent, pauper and insane and election and jury funds. five funds the county is run, Every dollar spent is carefully accounted for and the public records show where every cent for years past has gone to. aid in township work. The fund is now $52,000 in debt and with interest at six per cent per annum it will re- quire the county to absolutely stop building bridges for four and one- half years to pay off the debt. This is not the first time in the history of the county that the. fund has been in the same condition and it must be paid out of it now, just -as it was then, by stopping absolutely nec- essary improvements which are need- ed and demandéd by landowners in every corner of the county. During the same time, WHAT ARE THE REVENUES OF THE TOWN- SHIPS? The rate of every township is ten cents for township purposes (observe that $12,400. which goes to keep up twenty-four separate sets of officers, which should go for bridges and roads) and 25 cents for road and bridge purposes. This makes a total township tax of 35 cents or $43,000 per year for the township taxes. Then a poll tax is collected upon 5,600 persons which may range from $3 to $6 per year. Say that the low- est rate is collected and $16,800 is added making a total of $59,000 now collected for township purposes—or more than the total county taxes— while the amount may be increased (in poll tax) to $75,000. Under what regulation is this money disbursed? Observe this statement, Mr. Voter and Taxpayer. THERE IS NOT ONE STROKE OF A PEN UPON ANY PUBLIC RECORD IN YOUR COURT HOUSE TO SHOW WHERE ONE PENNY OF THIS MONEY WAS EVER SPENT. The annual report made by the township trustee is UPON SCHOOL MONEY ALONE, and no report of the expen- diture of $59,000 is ever made or known to more than four men in each township. . The money expended by your coun- ty court is subject toa double check system in the offices of the County Treasurer and the County Clerk. Every voucher and every warrant is filed and open to your inspection. Annually a detailed report of the ex- these records open to inspection. And yet from this $56,000 the is expected to meet the elections and election and costs, paupers and costing over of officers, furniture, public indebtedness | every expense of the county. | At the same time twenty-four dif- ferent sets of township officers will | collect $59,000 and neither upon per- | | manent public record or in printed | | report will ever appear any statement \of the use made of it which the tax- | payer may judge whether it has been | wasted or carefully expended. No one has charged that the town- ship officers are not asa rule good | citizens of the township, striving to do | the best in their power, but Mr. ‘Tax- jpayer, WOULD YOU RUN YOUR | SYSTEM? Then why run your pub-| | lic business that way? | Certainly no system could be de- vised ‘which would present such, under jtemptation to waste as this, | becomes of $59,000 collected and paid out. And observe also that underanew | law no poll tax payer may any long- er choose even to pay his poll tax in| labor near his own property. | Who Favors the Present System? Some township officers will oppose achange. These officers are among the taxpayers of the county. Will any one of them favor a condition which in every county having it has resulted in debt, protested warrants, | ja stand-still in public improvements, | poorer roads, heavier cost of market- | ing and a natural tendency toward depreciation of property because he | may for a year or two draw a few! dollars from a township office? | Will some of the banks of the county oppose it because they, now have on deposit township balances upon which they pay no interest? Surely no-bank stock- | holder will pay dollars in taxes| to get the benefit of dimes in saving of interest upon public funds. It is said that those who oppose rock roads will oppose a change. There is no possible way in which! rock roads can be built, with or with- | on the initiative and with the consent | of the landowners themselves. That} rock roads are being constructed all; over the state in counties without township organization and none are being built in counties with it is sim- ply a proof that township organiza-! tion takes the limit of taxation for its operation and leaves nothing for per- manent work. The supreme court has decided; that no county under township organ- ization may receive aid from the state permanent good road fund. With township organization a perma- nent road must be paid for every cent by the landowriers. Without township organization the state puts up a dollar for every dollar put up by the landowners. \.And remem- ber that you are‘paying your share of the taxes to make up this fund but that not one cent of it ever comes COUTIES WITHOUT TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Abolish township organization and the land owners MAY NOT start a permanent road in forty ‘years, but retain it and they WILL NOT if it costs a land owner in Bates twice what a land owner in Johnson county pays. The state of Missouri has in recent years appropriated several millions of dollars to the counties of the state to aid in good road work, outside of the present fund which counties un- der township organization cannot touch. What has become of such of this money as has come to Bates county? It has been distributed among the townships of Bates county and there is probably not a yard of permanent road improvement in the county to show where the townships spent it. How do Other Counties Regard it? After more than a quarter of a cen- tury in which any county in Missouri has had the chance to adopt township organization only twenty have accept- ed it and nearly a hundred have re- fused to have it. The counties with it are running behind. They are overloaded with outstanding warrants and are levying From these | PRIVATE BUSINESS BY SUCH A|the highest limit of taxes. Bates county’s $52,000 of indebtebness is but a sample of the condition of all. In counties without it, many are far below the limit in taxation and whatever of good road work and From this bridge fund of $13,000 which the way is made easy to ex-| Permanent improvements being car- per year must be built every bridge pend the township money for the/Tied on (and Missouri ranks third in Bates County which costs over benefit of favored citizens, employ in| 2mong all the states in this) is being $100 and yet some township is pres- Toad work only such as are favored done in counties without township entat every term of court asking for by these officials, and report to no 'ganization, and in which your taxes additional appropriations out of it to/ one or keep no open record of what/ 89 to make up the state fund from which half of their improvements are being paid. Did you ever think that every time the twenty-four township boards of Bates county meet there is paid out in salaries an amount sufficient to build four concrete bridges at points which might save you dollars per year in getting to market at the right time? Did you ever think that while you are demanding of your county court that they wipe out a bridge indebted- ness of $52,000 and are at the same time demanding that they build fiew and needed bridges and that they do both from a fund of $13,000 a year, that you are making no demands up- on your township officers in the ex- penditure of $59,000 and that you never even see an item of the record of how it is spent? Did you ever think that salaries of 120 offices which exist under town- ship organization were paid by youin higher taxes for which you get abso- lutely no return and that these salar- ies run up as high as $600 per year? Did you ever figure that the item of an extra election costs you some hundreds of dollars a year. Did you ever figure that it costs out township organization, except up-| four times as much to pay out a dol- lar under township organization as_ it does under county organizetion and that this loss amounts to more than a thousand dollars a year. Did you ever figure that it costs you many hundred dollars a year more to collect you taxes under town- ship organization? Did you ever figure that while your county funds bring you in nearly two thousand dollars a year from deposi- tories, that in the majority of cases your township funds are deposited without bringing in a penny and in spite of a law PROVIDING FOR THEIR BEING LET UPON BIDS? The township funds should bring in enough to pay the salary of a county assessor. Does your township fund draw any interest? Who is in Favor of a Change? It will be urged by some that But- ler will profit by a change in the law. There is absolutely no foundation for the statement and it will only be made through an ignorance of actual facts or an attempt to sway votes through an appeal to prejudice. Butler will profit no more than any other town in the county and no citi- zen in it any more than any other tax- payer in Bates county. Judging the future by the past both the assessor and collector for the 7 | county will be elected from the coun- try and the only special profit to the town will come from two officers re- siding there during their term of office. The county collector is required by law to visit each township for the purpose of collecting taxes and no taxpayer need come to Butler to pay his taxes unless he permits them to become delinquent which is also the case under township organization. The banks of Butler cannot profit at the expense of any other banks— UNLESS THE OTHERS ESCAPE PAYING INTEREST UPON DE- POSITS UNDER THE PRESENT SYSTEM. The law provides that the county court may divide the coun- ty money into from two to ten equal parts and these deposits are let to the highest bidders in the county. Butler citizens, just like the other citizens of the county, are interested in the reduction of taxes, a reduc- tion of debt and a betterment of the roads of the county. HOW WOULD A CHANGE IN THE LAW OPERATE? Townships would have the same justices of the peace and the same constables they have now, but elect- ed at the November election. Twenty-four assessors would give place to one assessor, élected by the people of the whole county, who would make a cheaper and more even assessment than twenty-four working independently can ever hope to make. Twenty-four collectors would give place to one who would visit each township in person or by deputy and collect the taxes just as they are col- lected now but at a saving of some hundreds of dollars a year. Forty eight board members, twen- ty four trustees and twenty four ex- officio clerks who now draw salaries would be abolished. Road overseers would be selected by the county court upon the recom- mendation or petition of the districts and they would expend the money collected as special road and bridge tax in the districts in which it was collected just as is the case now ex- cept that every item of the expense would be upon the county records, published yearly, and open to the in- spection of every taxpayer. The expense of one useless elec- tion would be saved. Every cent of money would be drawing interest where it was de- posited instead of a payment of $3000 a year on outstanding warrants as at the present time. : Now, Mr. Taxpayer, haven’t you carried this burden about long enough. Township organization was first brought about as a_ political measure to provide an incubator for political organizations. But is the re- sult worth the cost? And the end is not yet in sight. The change of the poll tax into a money tax of from $3 to $6 instead of a tax payable in labor shows that the limit of what is to be wasted is still on the increase. Outside of a few good concrete culverts what can township organiza- tion show for its years of operation except debt and interest. The roads must be worked over again year after year just as they were when the law was adopted. Not a mile in the county is permanent. Johnson county under county organization has far outstripped Cass and Bates under the other system. There are many in Bates county who have lived under no system ex- cept township organization and may dread the change. Fortunately among the newcomers in the county are many who have lived under both systems. Submit the question to one of these citizens and see what he urges. Has the post office department threatened to stop your rural route unless the roads are improved? Vote for a system that will improve them by saving your taxes from waste and let them be put into improving the roads. Take no unfounded statement or appeals to your prejudice. This is a business matter and de- mands yourattention as a business man. And when you have investi- gated it as a business man you will 2 cast your vote for lower taxes, bet- ter improvement, no debt and no waste, or extravagance. Adv. Organization? | ee =