Show I AGAINST THE COtVTY BONDS Salt Lake City March 15 1S93 I To the Editor of The Herald I have just received statement of the I county court to the taxpayers of Salt Lake county urging the taxpayers to vote bonds < c In reading said state I ment I can come to but one conclusion which is this jump out of the frying i pan into the fire The showing made by the statement is far from assuring and in presenting the figures the statement state-ment declares that it will be impossible impossi-ble to ever pay the indebtedness from the annual income and revenue of the county coun-ty and again on page 3 of the state men paragraph i this language is used From the above statement it is shown that with strict economy and by maltng a reduction varying from 25 percent per-cent to 75 per cent in ail county expenses ex-penses it will not be possible to save more than 10000 of the countys income and revenue for the year 1W5 which is little more than onethird of the interest that will accrue In 1S95 on the valid outstanding out-standing warrants At this rate the indebtedness in-debtedness as we stated above can never be paid out of the revenues of the county coun-ty and each year will be increased from i SlDOOO to 520000 by accruing Interest i Now from the statement there is no pretense that more than 10000 can be nOc 1 saved even by strict economy from the county revenues over and above current expenses for 1S95 which the statement says Is a little more than onethird the i Jireh which will accrue curing the year 1S93 This is of course on the basis of S per cent interest on outstanding valid warrants The interest on the valid In debtedness towit 0 r deal only with even thousands is 27000 per annum an-num leaving a deficit of 17000 of interest annually to be provided for outside of the countys legitimate revenues say nothing about the 15000 already accrued interest which must also be provided for The statement in this respect states the truth when it says that at this rate the indebtedness indebt-edness can never be paid out of the revenues rev-enues of the county and that the indebtedness indebt-edness will be Increased from J15COO to rm 15O 20000 by accruing interest annually Now suppose the bonds are Issued as proposed 373000 at 5 per cent interest per annum the interest on which will amount to in round numbers 19000 De duct from this aivlount of interest the 10000 saved by strict economy and still we have a deficit of 0 per annum on interest account How is this deficit to be provided for Only in two ways increased ref gri dn creased taxation or sale of more bonds The statement further uses this language lan-guage The same law that authorizes the issuance of these bonds provides for a sinking fund etc In this way a small amount invested each year as the law directs will provide a fund with which these bonds can be paid at their maturi ty and which fund Invested as set aside will earn interest to at least onehalf of the total Interest that will be pad on the bonds Can anything be more deceptive and misleading than this statement The county has neglected to Inform the taxpayers tax-payers where this small amount to be invested in-vested each year as the law directs etc is to come from But T see It comes from the 9000 annual deficit No the taxpayers must go down Into their pock pck ets to pay the interest on the bonds and the bonds themselves if the voter bonds yes The members of the county court in the statement pledged themselves to spend every dollar of premium which the bonds may sell for This ought to stimulate the taxpayer to vote bonds yes But we have had too much of expenditures ex-penditures already Taxpayers wil not be in a hurry to incur further indebtedness indebted-ness for luxuries and then feast on them for payday will surely come But suppose sup-pose we only pay 8 per cent on warrants outstanding instead of cent cent on a bonded Indebtednpss What of i In the first we pay the Interest to our pe ple or in other words to ourselves while In the second we rav with interest inter-est and principal to New York wih London bankers and beyond queston thy would demand that both principal and Interest be payable In cola coin that whIch Is now payable In silver coin or lawful money As misleading unfair and deceptive as Is the statement I desire deceptve the attention of thp taxpayers to fhe covert threat of the countv court that thpy will I issue the bonds whether tho taxnayrs vote yes or no which Is the worst fea ture of this whole business I tn1t the taxpayers will say most emr > hiti < ally on election dRY who are the servants and who are the masters by doing as they have done two times before and say BONDS NO and In so emphatic a manner man-ner that no urther expense will be incurred In-curred in holding an election on bond matters OLD RESIDENT |