Over $20,000 On Hand In The City's Funds

OVER $20,000 ON HAND IN THE CITY'S FUNDS

The Paving and Sewer Funds Are Now Overdrawn.

The City Can Overdraw its Paving Funds But Cannot Pay Orders on Funds in Which It Has Money

The city treasurer's report for the month ending Feb. 28. was filed with the council Monday night. It showed a state of facts on March 1 as follows:

Balance on hand, city funds...$29,262.45

Overdraft, paving funds... 4,831.41

Overdraft, sewer funds... 16,198.44

These are the city treasurer's own figures. He had erroneously, as the Argus believes, included in the city funds $9,218.06 which he then owed the county treasurer which he has since paid and which leaves in the city funds $20,044.39. That amount of money is in the city funds today. The school moneys had all been paid. In the following city funds there were balances on hand:

Bridge, Crosswalks and Culverts... $13,448.07

Contingent... 2,815.29

Fire... 2,741.51

Police... 1,721.70

Water... 2,540.32

The only funds overdrawn on which orders were drawn which the mayor has refused to sign were:

Street fund... $982.81

Poor fund... 254.09

If the council would transfer from the plethoric Bridge, Crosswalk and Culvert fund the large amount improperly paid for culverts and bridges out of the street fund last fall, this fund would show a nice balance. If it would transfer back to the poor fund the moneys which had been transferred out of it, it too, would have had money in it and the mayor would not be asked to sign warrants on a single overdrawn fund.

On the last day of February the city treasurer paid out $11,702.90 bonds and interest from the paving funds and $560 from the sewer funds, leaving the paving funds overdrawn as stated, above $4,831.41 and the sewer funds $16,198.44. Bonds may be paid from overdrawn funds, but orders must not be paid from funds with money in them.

The city treasurer says funds are not money and so he deceives himself. But the balance in a fund represents so much money. If it is not in the bank it must have been loaned. According to the argument of the treasurer and city attorney it is improper to loan money out of the paving funds to the city funds, but it is perfectly proper, according to them, to allow people who have earned money from funds in which there is cash to go unpaid, while the money in these funds is loaned to sewer or paving funds.

When the people come to understand how clear the case is the Argus has made against the city officials who have attempted to force the city to bond or to raise more taxes, their indignation will probably know no bounds.

The books have been closed to the Argus to delay the exposition of the true condition of the city's finances. They cannot fix their figures to sustain their contentions and when a report has to be filed, it shows that the Argus contentions all along have been correct by their own figures.