The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 9, 1917, Page 13

This Public Utility Cuts Taxes ys »qul to the Usual Rule is Reversed and Private Business Pa Public at Thief River Falls, Minnesota Shom;ing the bi§ privately owned dam at Thief River Falls, Minn,, and (on the left) the city’s water power electric light generating plant. Two turbine wheels furnish the equivalent of 500 horsepower for municipal lighting and to s BY RALPH L. HARMON “3 UBLIC . utility vnrbnr:xtinns chaded from the municipality. This is a large item of income itself, for it ell to private enterprise. any cash balance to the credit of the light plant, the people also have to they; voted to build a public auditorium and found that the bond issue did not < lon’t steal i Ee Thief includes supplying current to five grain thank this same publicly owned plant furnish enough money, the electric # ‘ ;{fl} : l.l~ 1;\111.“ b 2 ;um Tk:A('f elevators, two machine shops, two.. for all the water they have drunk, and light plant came to their rescue with _‘». R'“'l e b‘t ’;‘]"f”’n d'd lf' large blacksmith shops, two bottling all the street lights they have enjoyed §$4000 to finish out what was needed. itl‘fi.:)bb g:‘f;m(}é:l \'T;ir':o:gg works, two laundries, one co-operative for the past 17 years. - LIGHT PLANT I's or thereabouts, When -the big mill in CTC3MEIY, twWo newspapers, three meat Now, however, a more thorough sys-- £ b’ o A R E P ) markets, and some hoisting elevators P AT d th the little town began to make prosper- iTi pEtvate business hodsss: - The latty t_em of book keeping is in use and the . i ity in the wilderness, the people of 1 DEL ted 2 b i light department gets credit for its The light plant is the public pocket et Thief River Falls decided that it was 550 'S 0OW connected up with,the (o £5r other departments of the BB SENERAPIE | DS time to Degin conserving their public rights by establishing publicly owned utilities. The big private corporation that damped up the Red Lake river with concrete and wood, had all the water rights, and it kept them, but that was as far as private grabbing went. The people voted a bond issue of §7500 to build a small turbine water power plant to manufacture electric light for the town, and although they had to buy their water power from the dam company, they insisted on keepirg control of the light system. They also built their own water system, and later they voted $10,000 more bonds to in- crease the capacity of the electric power plant. Today the city is still paying the private dam company $175 a month for the water that drops through a penstock onto its two tur- bines, but the people themselves are making the profits out of this falling water, and turning these profits in to help keep down taxation. TAXPAYERS REFUSE TO LOWER LIGHT RATES Last year the municipality enjoyed a net income from the operation of its light department of $20,979, after al- lowing 10 per cent rebates for cash, totaling $2996. The total receipts from this source of revenue alone-amounted to $40,833 but out of this had to come the price paid for water power, salar- ies, rebates, discounts and other-items. There was a proposition before the flour mill and at times is called upon to supplement the mill's water power for the grinding of grain into flour. CITY FURNISHES POWER TO FRIVATE ENTERPRISE For many years the city did not keep books minutely on its publicly_owned electric light plant, so that no one knowg just what credit it ought to re- ceive, It supplied the electric power that ran the pump, which' pumped all the water for the town, and did this without accounting. It alse furnished all the street lights without getting one penny of credit, se that in addition to lowing percentages:_ Mining industry ..... Farming industry ... Livestoek industry .. Railroad industry .. . Banking industry ... « Telephone companies - Express companies .. Telegraph companies Mine and Farm Taxes BY' PEOPLE’'S NEWS SERVICE A committee of the Montana senate found that the burden of taxation rested upon different interests of the state in the fol- Water power companies city. Officials estimate that it has furnished. yearly about $8000 worth of electric light free to the city, light that would. have cost the. taxpayers that much, if they had been buying it from some private utility corporation. : But the electric light plant has done even .more than that. The neat little balance that this public servant always piles up has come to be-looked upon by each administration as an unfail- ing resource in time of trouble. When the interest fund was shy of the neces- sary money to apply on bond interest, the electric light plant came to the people’s rescue with $5000, and when RN L book of Thief River Falls, Everyone regards it as a good thing. Besides having done all these things, it has managed ‘to build up a reserve of $75,452, and this is drawing interest, for the public officials and the people, do not believe in turning over the sur- plus funds to the banks for free use. Interest last year on the electric light daily balances in the banks totaled $736, and the daily balances to the credit of the waterworks fund brought in $130 in a similar manner, The water system is no slouch itself, It is the twin sister of the light sys- tem. The city voted $92,000 bonds to build its water system, and the muni- cipality owns it and is responsible for it, instead of the system being charged up, piece by piece to adjoining prop= erty through local improvement dig~ tricts, as is done is some cities. The water system earned $6553 last year, with an operating expense of $2285 leaving $4268 to its credit. The city operates two wells with electrie power furnished from its eleetric plant, and is digging the third well, and con- structing a new ‘reservoir,~which will greatly improve the present distribue tion system. The total net water and light incomae last year from the two plants was $24,- 673, or lopping off all the trimmings, the net gain from the profit and loss - account was $15,572, which, added to the balance of $59,880 from previous years, gave the total net credit of $75,~ people last year to cut down the elec- o a . 2% ; tric lighting charge from 9 cents per The same committee found that the gross income from the KEEP,EXPLOITERS killowat hour to 8 cents, but when they mines was $141,500,000; from railroads in the state was $60,199,- AT A DISTANCE 5 looked at their tax levy, 31.5 mills for - 996; from farm crops was $81,154,190 and from livestock was $54,187,960. 2 The farming interests bear nearly 43 per cent -of the tax burden and the total income was. $135,342,150. The mines and city purposes alone, and $1.6 mills for . all purposes, they decided to let the electric light department continue to carry part of the load instead of in- cr From a statement of the resources of the water and light plant compiled January 1 by City Clerk A. H. Fasel, the city owns: real estdte on which the Nothing has eyer been able to shake the confidence of the people in their publicly owned light and water sys- tem. They even went so far at one time as to take up the matter of buy- ing out thé dam company and taking over the whole matter of light and power production, but the price asked for the dam was so high, that public ownership advocates decided not to . burden the municipality with that extra charge, and it was well they did not, for the dam went out soon after- ward and it cost the private company a pretty penny to restore it. At this point the people came to the rescue of their publicly owned plant again and voted $60,000 bonds to bhuild an auxiliary plant operated by two crude oil-burning engines—engines of the Deisel type, &uch as are used in the German submarines—and both plants have found plenty of work to do supplying incandescent lights for the citizens, and power for the private business enterprises of town that re- quire power, Not a wheel is turned in Thief River Falls (extept part of the wheels in the local flour mill) except by power pur- ing taxes. railroads bear about 26 per cent of the tax burden but had a gross income of $201,699,996 for the year 1916. It ought to be self-evident that the mining, lumber, railroad and other valuable land-holding interests fight equitable plans for taxation most vigorously hecause they are pretty well satis- fied to let the farmers hear the burden of taxation under the Congress is facing the hurden of - The people need relief through' present system, as they do now. raising billions for war purposes a just and simple system. Necessity is a great educator. The light ’ is breaking. Boy/s and Dollars The following, petition to President ‘Wilson and congress has been drawn up by I&. T. Carey of Donnybrook, N. D., in furtherance of the idea of making men and money co-operate to win the war. To the president of the United States of America, and the congress thereof: ' ‘We, the wundersigned, citizens and taxpayers, believing that there aye no slackers, and that every man in the _United States is ready and willing to * do his bit, hereby respectfully petition - costs of war, ‘"PAGE TWELVE the president and congress, not only to conscript men, but also capital and re- sources, pro rata to the wealth of indi- vidual, sufficient to prosecute the war to a successful end, and in lieu of the - eapital and resources thus taken issue United States liberty honds, in this manper avoiding the ill feeling and lack of harmony engendered by: the bresent system of soliciting subscrip- tions, assuring unity of action and equitable distribution of the burden of. plant stands, valued at $1000; building.‘; for the two plants worth $14,0003 equipment in water and Deisel plant of $57,656; waterworks distribution sys« tem worth $51,420, and other items bringing the total resources up to $264,172 with bonds outstanding of $152,000. Against these bonds stand the reserve Qf $75,172 earned by the light and wate® plant, and $32,258 in the depreciation funds. Thief River Falls is a little city with a population of only 8700 people but it has been big enough to keep out all public utility exploiters, and the only toe-hold which any private corporation has is the right to a street railway franchise upon which it pays $25 a year in order to hold its rights. Some- time perhaps this private corporation may rise up to demand its tribute from the people, hut then again with sup- port for public ownership so strong, and public ownership so successful ag it has been in Thief River, the people may decide to put in their own- street- railway when they 'are ready for it, and add it to the growing list of muni- cipal industries that are freeing the Dpeople from all forms of private exploi= tation, in many lands, s