Minutes 11/28/1922 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ne~ember 28, 1922 Brought Forward, .............................. EIGHTH WARD: $943,800.00 Tax Levy. .................. $93,0OO.00 Interest on Tax. ........... 300.00 Penalty on Tax ' DJOO O0 Advertising ................ 60.00 Licenses ................... 8~000.00 $101,760.00 NINTH WARD: Tax Levy - $65,000 O0 Interest on Tax-. ........... 250.00 Penalty on Tax,' ............ 350.00 Advertising Tax. ........... 200.00 Licenses r ~ 200 00 ?0,000 OO Grand Total ............................................. ; ........ $2,115,560.00 Total Estimated Expenses - - 1,111,86~ O0 Unappropriated Balance - $ 3,692 00 3- As long as we pursue~the antiquated and illogical method of making street improve- ments solely from the proceedS of bond issues, successive increases in tax rates will be inevitable. In the past year/$800,O00.O0 in Bonds have been issued to proTide funds for New Jail~ Paving, Sewers and Schools. With these funds the City.has now completed, at a cost of $15Q,000.00, the finest and most modern Jail south of Philadelphla; splendid ad- ditions have been made to both our grammar and Hi Eh School systems, at a cost of $250,000.00; lO miles of curbing and guttering have been completed; contracts for 3 miles of street pav- ~ng have been awarded and work started; contracts for s~er and storm drains, aggregating ?5,000.00, have been let and work is now under way; contract for the new West Norfolk Bridge, costing the City $62,500.00, has been awarded and work ~ommenced; the new Leckie St. Bridge has been completed, which as soon as the fill in its approaches has been placed, will give a safer and shorter route to West Park View; rights of way for the extensions ~ of Hatton, Leckie, Cooke and Washington streets have been bought and the first three streets opened; ~ewers have been laid in the extension of Hatton street and in Virginia street; and new sewers on a new system nearly completed on Little Effingham street and on Stonewall street between Green and L%ttle Effingham. The expenditure for these various improvements will require an annual interest and sinking fund charge of $56000.00. This one item alone would make necessary an increase in the tax ra~e of nineteen cents if no reductions were made in other directious. We have also now for the first time in the City's history oily ~inking Fun~ established on a proper basis by an amendment to otuv Charter passed by the Legislature of 1922. The payments to this Sinking Fund will require approximately on stir p~esent bonded indebtedness $50,500.00 per year, bmr will eventually place the City on -a sound f%nancial basis. 4. The City, excl~iing the Eighth and Ninth Wards, is now within $1,O00,000.00 of its limit of bonded indebtedness. We are already committed tO an extensive and comprehensive' plan for sewering and draining the City, which should be spread over a period of four yea~s, in, lying an a~unal expenditure of probably $250,000.00. We will also in all probability construct a new City and~Uounty building in co-operation with the County of Norfolk. While the cost of this building will not be, except in part, a charge against cum bonded debt, the interest mus~ be provided for as well as the ~xcess of the cos~ of the new building over proceeds from the sale of property now ~wned by the City and County. It is, therefore, evident that we have now all the finan~ial burdens which we can safely carry until 1925, when the new assessment will undoubtedly make it possible to issue additional bonds. I, therefore, most ea~nest!y recommend that ou~v new work for the next few years be confined to absolute essentials, Such as our sewer and drainage system, the new public building, the development cf our park, a new or improved m~rket., (which if properly conducted should be self-supporting), a new fire headquarters, (which may be built without adding to the City's debt by proceeds from the sale of the present building and site of the Chambers 0o.); and to the new work in the Eighth and Ninth Wards, which will be provided for by a bond issue based on the assessed valuations in these W~rds and aggregating about a million dollars. This work, as outlined, will give ou~ engineering force all it can do for the next few years even with greatly augmented numbers. 5. It is often asserted that we have a high tax rate and a high assessment in Ports- mouth. The fgllowing table covering Cities of approximately the same population shows this assertion to be erroneous: ' Name .Rate P~ttsfield, Mass. Jackson, Mich. K~lamazoo, Mich. Na~ Oity, Mich. Winston-Salem, N. Romnoke, Va. Portsmouth, Va. $1.92 2.23 3.65 3.7S 1.65 .Assessed against ab~itting owners ~ (estimated) The rates given have been adjusted to correspond to the actual values of the pro- perty, it being assumed for Portsmouth that the assessed values average 70% of the actual values. The third column shows the percentage of cost for street improvements assessed against abutting owners. Roanoke and Winston-Salem it appears are the only Cities in the' list with a lower rate than Portsmouth. In Winston-Salem 100% of the cost of street improve- men~s is assessed against abutting owners and in Roanoke, I am informed, in practically all cases, before street improvements are made~t~A~abutting owners voluntarily agree to pay a largerperoentage of the cost of such improvements~ Any City which does not assess abuttihg owners in whole or in part must soon reach its bonding limit and public improvements will then ceas$. ~e face that contin~enov at an e~rtv