Show Taking the questions in iii order orderS S First The water tax is a specific tax The council has always S used the profit from water tax ta for general purposes and in so doing has added an illegal burden to the taxes limited by law The surplus revenue from this source is now pledged by ordinance as security for interest on bonds and sinking fund for or their redemption tion so it is no longer longcr available for general purposes s Second So long as the voters approve the practice the council will continue to collect all the taxpayers will stand whether it exceeds the sum stint required for maintenance of the water waterworks waterworks works or not The legal right to do so has e Qt been deter determined determined determined mined specifically in court so far f r as The Herald is advised Third The water tax ta as collected under both Democratic an and l Republican councils co has always been a discriminating tax ta since the th larger consumers pay much less than their just proportion proportIon proportion tion of the expense exp incurred in supplying water 5 S Fourth It is questionable whether maintenance of waterworks from a general tax would be bc desirable since it would make heavy property k owners who use little water pay much more than a fair proportion pi portion of the expense The fairest system would be a i water tax proportioned exactly in accordance with the amount of water ater ut lied to each consumer and that could only be done by meters aa t avery heavy expense expel s to the city or the consumers S Finally it is the intention of the present council to add 50 of bonds to those already issued and make these bonds a lien revenue from water taxes a es less operating expenses exp so that consumers co con 1 rs may expect to have their water w ter rates raised instead of lowered k cred as Justice seems to think may be possible |