USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1879 > Part 5
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expenditures of the town. The inhabitants have been more ready to vote to expend money than to pay it, and consequently a heavy debt has accumulated." In spite of this warning the debt went on slowly increasing, the expenses each year exceed- ing the appropriations, until in 1844 the present Town Hall was built, and then it jumped up to $29,000. In proportion to the valuation of that time, this was about equivalent to a debt of $130,000 now. This naturally created some uneasiness, and an appropriation was each year made towards reducing the liability. It did not however decrease, but in 1846 was as large as ever. In that year a committee reported on the subject in the follow- ing language : - " It has been customary in times past to direct that a portion of the sum raised by the town should be devoted to the payment of its debts, and it has ever been the object of complaint that, notwithstanding our appropriations, our liabilities have been but slightly and oftentimes in no wise decreased. On this account, not unfrequently, do we blame our town officers, believing that from their injudicious management of our affairs that the fault rests with them, but such is not the case. If we will give the subject a moment's consideration we shall perceive that with ourselves is the sole cause of this continued indebted- ness. The inhabitants of this town are well aware with how much ease, and with how little consideration it is voted to spend money (and it is not denied that they have a perfect right to do so), but they are equally well aware that when the time comes when they should assess themselves to pay for the appro- priations so liberally made, they are suddenly impressed with an economical feeling and rarely vote to raise so much money as they have previously decided to expend." This plain language seems to have had some effect, and a more sensible method was for a few years introduced into the management of the town's finances. Under these circumstances the debt was rapidly reduced, until in 1853 it amounted to only $11,000. Unfortu- nately, either the purpose or the courage of the town did not hold out long enough to completely extinguish it, and in 1854 it began to increase again. From that time forward until 1874 it was almost a continual repetition of the same old story. Large
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expenditures and insufficient appropriations ; deficiencies in ordinary town expenses, made good by borrowing money ; spas- modic efforts to reduce the debt, weakly pursued for a year or two, and then followed by its sudden increase. The ground once lost was never wholly regained; until in 1874 the debt stood at its highest point, having reached the very respectable gross figure of $128,000. Fortunately a new system was that year introduced into the method of doing the town business.
It came none too soon, and the year 1874 was probably a turning point in the financial history of Quincy. The debt had then just assumed those dangerous proportions at which com- munities get discouraged and settle themselves down to bear it, on the ground that it has got too large to try to pay it off. After that a permanent, always growing, interest account follows as a matter of course. This Quincy escaped by the very simple process of doing the town's business in a business-like way. Instead of voting a whole year's appropriations, which had not been considered, in the hurry of a town meeting called upon to elect town officers and to dispose of all the articles in a long warrant without examination, in a single day, -in place of this hap-hazard way of doing business which had for years been in use, the custom of referring the business articles in the warrant to a committee to examine and report thereon at an adjourned meeting, was adopted. The effect of this change was magical. The estimates have since been carefully considered, adequate appropriations have been voted, and the town officers have been held strictly within them. Where annual deficiencies have from any cause arisen, they have not been quietly and helplessly slipped into the town debt, as was the former usage, but they have been directly met and made good by a deficiency bill. A special additional annual tax has been levied to reduce the debt, and, what is more, has been applied to that purpose. Consequently, in the four years through which this business-like method has been pursued, two-thirds of the debt has been extinguished, and it is now reduced to the point where it stood before its rapid growth began in 1863. This, too, has been accomplished during a period of almost unexampled business depression. The
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town has responded manfully to the calls made upon it, and now has the satisfaction of knowing that the burden has been re- duced to a point where it is perfectly manageable, amounting indeed in all to but one-third of a single annual tax-levy. Such has been the history of the town debt. It now only remains to consider how it can most easily and most speedily be, once for all, paid off and gotten rid of.
As respects the policy of thus wholly extinguishing it, the committee can entertain no doubt. It has sometimes been argued that a moderate town debt is a good thing, as checking a tendency to extravagance. The experience, however, of Quincy and of other towns shows that this is an utter fallacy. With towns, as with individuals, the one safe way is to pay as you go. A town which has once been in debt and has gone through the very unpleasant and tedious process of paying its debt off, is very careful about getting into debt again. A burnt child, it fears the fire. This has been proven in the experience of many places immediately about Quincy, - in that of Milton, for one. On the other hand, a moderate debt is a very great danger. The advocates of every unnecessary public work are continually arguing that the debt is small, that the town can afford to increase it, that other towns not so rich owe a great deal more, that money is cheap, &c., &c., and the experience of Quincy in 1844 and in 1854 and in 1864 is repeated again and again, only each time on a larger and more dangerous scale. The plan of a moderate debt has been tried by this town for over forty years, and it has not worked well. It has simply resulted in making us pay off in bad times debts carelessly contracted in good times. It is very easy to vote ourselves all sorts of things pleasant to have, just by a shout in town meeting, and to direct the treasurer to borrow the money to pay for them. This course, as the table herewith submitted very clearly shows, was freely pursued between the years 1864 and 1874. Had the town, instead of doing this, then paid as it went, as it perfectly well might have done, we could now, on the amount we annually raise, have all the roads and bridges and school-houses any one wants without incurring a dollar of debt. During the last five
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years we have been compelled to pay on an average $23,000 a year in principal and interest, instead of for things we now want, just because during the previous ten years the town preferred to run in debt half that amount each year for things they then wanted, but did not want to pay for. Surely, as a community we ought to learn something by the experience of fifty years. That something would in this case seem to be that the only safe and truly economical course is for us to pay this debt off, and then to take good care not to contract another.
The next question is, - What is the best way of doing this ? The net debt of the town now amounts to $35,400.09. This is equal to about five mills on a dollar of the total valuation. In other words, a special tax raised this year, of five mills on the dollar, would pay the whole debt off. This done, the regular annual rate could, with proper economy in the management of town expenses, be thereafter reduced to $1.00 on the hundred of the present valuation ; the point where it stood in 1865, and which is as much as property ought to be asked to bear.
Were the debt of the town in a form in which it could be got at to pay it off, it can hardly admit of question that the wisest course would be, even in spite of the business depression of the time, to levy its whole amount within at most two years, and have the thing done. For a town with a valuation of nearly eight million dollars to make a long process about paying off a debt of less than $40,000 is absurd. It is exactly as if a man having $1000 of property and owing $5 were to elaborately divide his debts off into fifty cents notes, and then arrange to pay them with tremendous effort at the rate of one note a year. Under such circumstances any thrifty sensible man would pay the $5 and have done with it ; and so should a town. So far as the owners of property are concerned, -and they have got to pay this money, - they, more than any one else, are interested in paying it just as soon as possible. Most of all is this true of the holders of real estate, especially if they want to sell it. In these times one of the greatest inducements which can be held out to people to come into a town to settle or to build, is free- dom from town debt, and a consequent low rate of taxation.
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How great an inducement this is few people seem to realize. The fact is, however, that the rate of taxation in Boston, and in many of the towns about Boston, is simply crushing, and will soon be found to be so. Business cannot stand it, and will assuredly go to other places where the tax-gatherer is not met at every turn. In Boston last year the tax amounted to no less than $27 for each inhabitant of the city, of which $8, or nearly one-third, was paid for interest on the debt. This burden is not likely to grow less. In Quincy, were the debt extinguished, the annual levy for each inhabitant need not exceed $9, of which nothing would be paid on account of interest. This is an in- ducement to come into a place to live which amounts to some- thing. It is escape from a heavy and increasing burden, - a burden the consequence of which people do not seem to under- stand. Yet, whether they understand it or not, it is undoubtedly a fact that in these days of narrow margins and close competi- tion people must and will leave places where they have to pay twenty per cent. of their annual profits to tax-gatherers, and go to places where they do not have to pay more than five per cent. It is no use abusing them and calling them "tax-dodgers " for doing this. Unless they do it they cannot carry on business. It should be the aim, therefore, of every sensible town to make itself a good place for " tax-dodgers" to go to; and it cannot do this except by keeping out of debt. This great inducement of an immunity from the burden of always paying interest on debts contracted by others, it is now perfectly in the power of the town, and plainly for its interest, to offer. Each tax-payer can easily compute what his share of the burden would be. If his house is valued at $800, he would have to pay $4; if his total valuation is $1000, he would have to pay $5 ; if $20,000 he would have to pay $100 ; - and then the town debt would be extinguished. Viewed from this point it certainly does not seem too much to say that by directly levying an extraordinary tax, and, once for all paying the debt off, any town situated as this town is by the very act of so doing would immediately increase the value of its real estate by at least ten per cent. In other words, by levying this tax of $36,000 on themselves, the
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people of Quincy could increase the market value of their real estate by at least $500,000. To those having houses, or real estaté for sale this would not seem to be a bad operation.
If the interest of the property-holder is thus apparent, that of the payer of a simple poll-tax is not less so. It is often argued that it is a good thing for towns to borrow money to make public improvements in hard times, in order to give work to the un- employed. The fact is, however, that the laboring man is inter- ested in keeping down the rate of taxes in the town in which he lives at all times. The way for him to secure employment is to have fresh people coming into the town, and more building and new enterprises started there. But people do not move them- selves or their business into debt-burdened and tax-ground localities. A rate of $1.50 upon the hundred of a full valuation tells quite as severely on the laboring man as on the property- holder. The same simple rule of freedom from debt holds good for both.
To clear the debt off wholly in just the same way in which, within the last four years, it has been reduced to its present amount seems, therefore, manifestly the interest of all. Two years more would do it. Unfortunately, however, this short and sharp method of dealing with the matter cannot be pursued. In 1 868 the town officers, doubtless exercising reasonable judgment in so doing, but certainly not foreseeing the present condition of the money market, borrowed a large sum of the State, on long notes, having from ten to twenty years to run. They evidently thought that interest would never be any lower, and that a per- manent town debt was an established fact. Of these notes, six, amounting in the aggregate to $65,000, are yet to mature, as follows : -
December 9, 1878, $5,000
November 1, 1881,
20,000
December 9, 1883,
5,000
March 23, 1884,
20,000
December 9, 1888, 5,000
June 1, 1889,
10,000
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Of these notes the first will mature during the present year, and is already provided for by cash in the town treasury. The others are all in the hands of the State Treasurer, who very naturally declines to allow the town to pay them in advance of maturity, unless other equally good notes of the same rate of interest, can be substituted for them. The interest on the se notes is 6 per cent. With money freely offered to towns at 4 per cent. and lower, it is manifestly out of the question to sub- stitute other notes. They would now probably command a pre- mium of 15 or 20 per cent. Under these circumstances the total immediate extinguishment of the debt is not now practicable. It will have to be deferred until the rate of interest on town notes is again 6 per cent. This, probably, will be within a year or two. Whenever that time arrives the State will allow the town to take up its notes by substituting the notes of other towns for them.
The policy of the town as respects its debt must, therefore, be shaped accordingly. That debt now stands follows : -
NOTES PAYABLE.
State of Massachusetts notes, $65,000 00
Woodward Fund, on demand, 5,500 CO
Interest accrued on above notes,
1,059 17
Repair Fund, in lots on Mt. Wollaston Cemetery, 100 00
Due for damage to' land occupied by Mrs. M. D.
Gibbons, 200 00
$71,859 17
CR.
By cash in the treasury, $26,319 62
Due as per schedule of oustanding ac- counts,
4,038 96
Unpaid taxes of 1877, as per list, 6,100 50
$36,459 03
Net amount of town debt, Feb. 1, 1878, $35,400 09
100
The question is simply as to what course the town shall pur- sue in regard to that portion of its gross debt ($60,000) no part of which will mature within the next three years. In the first place we assume that it is the fixed purpose of the town to, this time, clear the debt off and have done with it just so soon as it can be got at. It can be got at just so soon as the current rate of interest on town notes rises to 6 per cent, and it cannot, except at considerable sacrifice, be got at any sooner. This will probably be within two or three years at the furthest. A sink- ing-fund might be created into which an amount could mean- while regularly be paid each year, so as gradually to accumulate a sufficient sum to pay these notes as they mature or can be bought. Sinking-funds are, however, at best but complicated make-shifts, generally calculated to deceive people as to what they owe and what they are paying. In the present case, also, the amount of the debt is so small in proportion to the wealth of the town, that it seems absurd to put such a complicated piece of machinery as a sinking-fund at work to dispose of it. The better way would seem to be for the town to let these notes alone until it can get hold of them, and, when it can get hold of them, to simply raise the money and pay them off. This course we would recommend. It will not only afford a present and much needed relief from the burden of immediate taxation, but it is simple and business-like. Whenever these notes can be gotten at they can with great ease be extinguished in two years, and, if the town is disposed to make the effort, in one. To prevent any increase of the debt meanwhile, however, it will be well for the town to adopt a standing rule directing the selectmen to include in the estimates for each year an item to cover any deficiencies which may have occurred between the appropriations and the expenses of the previous year. So far as the coming year is considered, for the first time probably for a generation, the town will not have to levy any direct tax on account of either the principal or interest of its debt. Such part of the principal as can be paid is already provided for, and the corporation tax will take care of the interest.
IOI
To carry out the conclusions of this report the committee would, therefore, offer the following votes : -
Voted, That in preparing the estimates of expenses for each coming year the selectmen hereafter insert therein an item suffi- cient to cover any deficiency which may have accrued between the amount appropriated for the previous year and the amount actually expended.
Voted, That the town treasurer be instructed to take up and cancel the notes of the town now in the hands of the treasurer of the Commonwealth whenever the same, or any part of them, can be obtained at a sum not exceeding their face, value and matured interest ; and that he be authorized at any time to bor- row money on town notes, having not over one year to run and equal in amount to the notes taken up, to enable him to carry out the purpose of this vote.
CHARLES F. ADAMS, JR., WILLIAM A. HODGES, CHARLES A. FOSTER,
Committee.
WOODWARD FUND.
CASH ACCOUNT.
HORACE B. SPEAR, Treasurer, in account with the Woodward Fund.
DR.
To cash on hand, Feb. 1, 1878,
$13,149 78
Interest on Portland Water Co. bonds, 480 00
66 City of Lynn bonds, 1 80 00
Boston bonds, and premium, 201 25
66 Cambridge bonds, 180 00
Cleveland bonds, 140 00
66 Fall River bonds, 29 33
Ogdensburg & Lake Cham- plain Railroad bonds, 120 00
66
Old Colony Railroad bonds, 60 00
U. S. Bonds, and premium, 661 85
66 of Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co., 83 13
on loans secured by mortgage, 1,424 25
66
Town of Quincy, 45 83
Rent from Peter Butler, 1,000 00
Dividend Nat'l Mt. Wollaston Bank,
84 00
Town of Quincy, balance note,
5,500 00
$ 1000 City of Fall River bond, 1,075 00
$2000 U. S. bonds, 5-20, 1867,
2,157 50
$26,571 92
Amount carried forward,
$26.571 92 (102)
103
Woodward Fund, continued.
Amount brought forward, $26,571 92
CR.
By $2000 Old Colony Railroad bonds, $2,047 50
Accrued interest on same,
18 67
$5000 U. S. Bonds, 6s, 1881,
5,381 25
Loans on mortgage,
14,000 00
Accrued interest on same, 328 00
Loan to town of Quincy,
4,000 00
J. H. Roche, repairs on buildings, 69 00
J. T. & W. V. Hayward, painting,
II 40
Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co., rent of safe, 20 00
Recording assignment mortgage,
50
Expenses,
75 00
Balance deposited in bank,
620 60
--- $26,571 92
STATEMENT OF THE FUND, FEBRUARY 1, 1879.
Personal property received from the estate
of Dr. Woodward, at appraisement, $30,089 83
Less loss on $2000 U. S. bonds, sold, 182 50
- $29,907 33
Sale of land,
18,743 02
66 pews, 120 00
Income account,
33,031 00
$81,801 35
104
Woodward Fund, continued.
INVESTED AS FOLLOWS : -
4 Bonds, U. S. 6s, 1881, $1000 each, at ap- praisement, $4,680 00
8 Portland Water Co., $1,000 each, at appraisement, 8,000 00
6
Vt. & Canada Railroad, $500 each, at appraisement, 3,030 00
5
Vt. Central Railroad, $1,000 each, at appraisement, 4,000 00
6
66 Hartford & Erie Railroad, $1,000 each, at appraisement, 2,520 00
Notes secured by mortgage,
27,475 00
Loan to town of Quincy,
4,000 00
Portland Water Co. scrip,
552 00
14 Shares Nat'l Mt. Wollaston bank,
2,100 00
7 Bonds, U. S. 6s, 1881,
7,671 25
2 City of Cleveland, $ 1,000 each, 2,060 00
4
66
66 Boston, 1,000 66
4,430 00
3
66 Cambridge, 1,000 «
3,330 00
3
Lynn, 1,000 6 3,285 00
2
Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad, $ 1000 each, 2,000 00
2
Old Colony Railroad, $1,000 each, 2,047 50
Cash deposited in bank, 620 60
$81,801 35
HORACE B. SPEAR, Treasurer.
"
MOUNT WOLLASTON CEMETERY.
IN accordance with the By-Laws, the Board of Managers of the Mount Wollaston Cemetery submit their fifth annual report.
SALE OF LOTS.
The sum of one hundred and eighty ($180) dollars has been received for eighteen (18) lots sold.
The number of lots sold since the adoption of the By-Laws, and under the present system of management, is 106. The total number of lots sold is 929.
GRADING AND LABOR ON LOTS.
The sum of $932.36 has been charged for labor on 220 lots, of which sum $811.86 has been collected, leaving due from owners of lots the sum of $113.50.
REPAIR FUND.
Two deposits have been made with the Town the past year, of one hundred ($100) dollars each, the annnal income of which is to be appropriated for the perpetual care of the lots of the depositors. Three lots are now so provided for, and the amount of the " Repair Fund " for perpetual care is $300.
APPROPRIATION.
The Managers suggest that the usual appropriation of one thousand ($1000) dollars can be well used for the continued general care and improvement of the Cemetery, and therefore, as required by the Town, name that sum as the appropriation for the ensuing year.
8
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106
FINANCIAL.
Cash on hand, Feb. 1, 1878,
$388 74
Appropriation for 1878, 1,000 00
Collected for lots sold,
180 00
for labor on lots,
811 86
for single graves,
10 00
for non-resident owners,
62 00
66
for hay sold,
44 50
66
for income of the Repair Fund,
6 00
for unpaid bills of 1876, 2 00
66
66
1877, 66 00
$2,571 10
Expended as appears by the Selectmen's account,
2,043 51
Balance of cash to new account,
$527 59
Due from owners of lots for labor, -
1873,'74,'75,'76,'77,
$214 00
1878,
113 50
Total,
$327 50
Respectfully submitted,
WM. A. HODGES, Chairman. GEORGE L. GILL, Secretary.
QUINCY, Feb. 1, 1879.
ENGINEERS' REPORT.
TO THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF QUINCY.
Gentlemen,- In accordance with the practice of my predeces- sors the Chief Engineer (having served only nine months) here- with submits his report for the year ending, February 1, 1879.
FORCE OF THE DEPARTMENT.
The department at present is under the control of a Chief Engineer and six Assistants, and consists of three hand-engines with hose carriages attached, two four-wheeled hose carriages, one two-wheeled hose carriage, one hook and ladder truck, and one chemical engine, all in good condition (one engine excepted) and manned by 212 volunteers. Also a Blake steam-pump, with Herreschoff boiler attached, which are connected with 2500 feet of six-inch water-pipe which supplies six hydrants. This is in charge of an engineer.
HOSE.
There is belonging to the department 4150 feet of leading hose, 2600 feet of good cotton, 200 feet of old leather (not reliable), 150 feet of linen (very poor) 1200, feet of poor cotton, and 180 feet of rubber for use of the chemical engine, and 60 feet for steam pump.
RESERVOIRS.
Three new reservoirs, one each on Willard, Robertson and Chubbuck Streets, have been constructed during the past season. These with all others, 19 in number, are in good condition.
HOUSES.
The buildings of the department are all in the best of con- dition internally : some of them need outside painting. The
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houses of the three hand engine companies have been painted inside and papered as well as otherwise improved the past sea- son ; the hook and ladder house has been enlarged and painted inside.
STEAM PUMP, HYDRANTS, &c.
At the annual meeting in March last, the Town appropriated $3,800 for the erection of a building for the steam pump, pur- chase of a boiler and water-pipes with hydrants. The Board of Engineers, after a thorough investigation of the subject with the future wants of the town in view, deemed the four-inch pipe on which estimates were made too small for the purpose required, and substituted a six-inch pipe; consequently they have exceeded the appropriation allowed for that purpose.
That portion of the center of the Town in which pipes are laid is now in my opinion better protected from fire than it would be with two or more steam fire engines ; having 2500 feet of pipe running through the main street with which are connected six hydrants. As the expense of laying pipes and hydrants is about the same or a trifle less per foot than leading hose, I would recommend, with the advice of the Board of Engineers, that the pipes be extended through School Street to Franklin, and con- tinued northerly to the junction of Hancock and Adams Streets.
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