The New City Charter

A perusul of the íiew city charter show tlint, if carried into effect, ït must unnecessarily greatly incniase tho expenses of running the city govermnent witli no correpo:uliug benefit. It the affairs of the city are to be prudeutly managed lor the best mtorests oí' the iniiaintants, aud not to bouetit ofiiceholders only, all the chrcks and protoction necessary could be fuiniüherl under tho present charter with few or no amcndmonts httsidna those required by the act of the. board of supervisors in throwing upou tho city the care uf its poor, and without the euormous multiplication of oflicers aud agunts which might, uudor the proposed charter, approximate the number of kreeholdan in the city, aud swell the taxes b6T0ud the highest legal rate ot interest on the assessinent. A leuding aud distiuguished feature of the tirst ehartar of Ann Arbor city (Uien entirely original) wan the metliod of 2Ollecting all city taxes with tho State and county t.ixes, as township taxes are collected iu the towuships ; and it has snvud hundreds, and probably housands, of dollars expcuses evory year. ïhat such method pieperly couducted is availabie and expedient, was shown by the fact tliat, after the city charter, the expenses of both the city and township govornnients added tocther were loos than the annual township expenses bofore the división. Now, wben hard times require strict economy, and 80 few kinds of business afford any profits, it is not good poliey to add 80 many boards of oflicers, when each board will prob" ahiy cause more expense than under prudont management has bcn fonnd sumcient to pay all the city oflicers for soms previous year' The attempt was made by a fonner Couucil to pay the meinbers as legislators are paid, and make the city sustain a prepuratory school for would-be legiBlatore, but the inhahitants did uot deern it expedieut: so many being auxious to be councilmen without pay. In ome despotic governments the people are made to feel it necessary to have ofücers or overseers to direct and watch all their acts aud movemenis, if not their thoughts, and the new cliarter seems based upon soaiewhat euch a view of the neceissity of an army of oflicers. None ot the beuetits suggested or evils complained of mke such aniendments necessary, desirabie, or likely to be in any lespeet boueficial, and it is diíHoult to find any of them worth the trouble of the change. The ditference between the present and proposed ïnethods of laying and collecting taxes is a fair sample of the proposed improvcineuts. The cluiuge inakes the addition ot' the exjnso of a separate system, aud of all the machinery of taxution uecessary in all its stages Ironi assessiug uutil the final deeding of land sold for taxes ; makes it uecossary to levy a much larger tax to pay the sume sum, because, instead of getting at once m cash all taxes received for the city as now, a considernble portion will be unpaid and returued delinquent, and the city, after paying doublé costs or more sp tar, must einploy and pay an oíñeer, and keep an office open alt the year, to receive payment ot delinquent taxes and redemptions, - which alone will probably cost sovcral times the amount of delinquent taxes collected, and make twice as much trouble to all taxpayers. It would bo more for the interest of the city to have the charter repealed and go back into the township, even if we lost the City Hal] thereby, than to huve the new shaiter.