OCR Text |
Show THE OPPOSITION WAIL. The opposition press appears to bo dazod by the fact that in spito of all tho tremendous improvements being made in (ho city this year, thero Avas a raise of only one mill in the city tux. That press confidently figured on a raise of at, least three mills; the llcrnld figured four and ono-hnlf. Undoubtedly none of the other papers figured on less than fifteen and one-half mills for tho total city tnx, Tho American pnrty, however, cut tho estimates so that the total tax is but. thirt.oon mills, and all tho improvements im-provements under way and let are to be put in this year and can bo arranged for under that tax. Tho opposition press, following tho lend of 'the opposition Oonncilmon, raised a roar about this thirtecn-mill lovy. Their real grievance, howevor, is not that tho tax is made as much as thirteen thir-teen mills ono mill more than last year but that it was not mado much larger. Tho opposition Councilmcn contended against; tho low levy; they insisted on a higher figure. Mr. Fornstrom contended con-tended that fifteen and one-half mills alone would sec tho city through, and he vchomcntly proclaimed that the city would bo bankrupt before tho end of tho year unless tho fifteen and one-half-mill levy was mado. So that, in fact, the disappointment of tho opposition is not that tho city levy was raised a trifle, but that it was not raised largely; that is the sore spot with them. The one mill, as a matter of fact, in ontirel' reasonable. It is fully accounted for in the vast improvements that every ono can seo are going on in tho city. Any ono going around and looking at these improvements must bo astonished not that the tax was raised ono mill, but that tho excellent financiering finan-ciering of tho American party administration adminis-tration is able to keep it down to that figure. If the American party is to bo blamed for raising the city tax levy pno mill, what shall wo say of the opposition Councilmen, of tho opposition press, in .their insistence that the lax lovy should be mndo not thirteen mills, but fifteen and one-half to sixteen and one-half ! mills? It was confidently figured by the opposition managers that this increased tax would Joe required. Their disappointment disap-pointment that it was not required, that tho American administration was able to ease the burden and still do far more public work thnn any eity administration administra-tion has ever done before and do it moro economically and .better, is keen. At the samo time, the taxpayers will be relieved re-lieved and will gratefully feel the difference dif-ference in favor of the American administration. ad-ministration. And to this point we wish to direct the attention of the public. Tho opposition op-position insists that a tax levy of fifteen fif-teen and one-half to sixteen and one-half one-half mills should be made. That means necessarily that if that opposition were in power it would levy that tax. The American administration, however, levied lev-ied but thirteen mills. The" difference, then, between tho American levy and the levy which the opposition favors, which it insists upon, and which neces-saril' neces-saril' it would make if it had the power, is from two to three mills in favor of the American levy. That is to eny, if the opposition had its way the increase would not slop nt one mill, but Would bo raised from three and one-half to four and one-half mills. And this is the choice offered tn flm npnnln Ttin oppostiou insists upon a tax of fifteen fif-teen and one-half to sixteen and ono-half ono-half mills the 'American party decides on thirteen mills; and yet the opposition press has the supreme gall to insist that the American party is opprcssivo and hard on the taxpayers. Is it hard on tho taxpayers to relieve them from this additional ad-ditional two and one-half to three and one-half-niill tax which tho opposition urges? If so, then the American party is reprehensible: for that is precisely what it has done.. It cqts the estimato of the opposition, which the opposition insisted was absolutely necessary and which, of course, that opposition would impose, in case jt had the power, down to thirteen mills in place of fifteen and one-half to sixteen and one-half mills claimed by the opposition to be necessary neces-sary and desirable. The reduction is the reduction made by the American party. And that is th.e kind of an "enemy" which the American party is to the people of Salt Lake. |