Minnesota Municipalities Volume 1-2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ...higher cost of government and higher taxes, or less service for the same price. It hurts a town's credit. Cities, even states, cannot escape the price of their financial slovenliness. A floating debt is evidence that the government is not employing business methods in its financial operations, and inferentially in everything else. Capital, ever timid, is afraid you will not pay your debts, or that you are living extravagantly, and hence, avoids participating in funding operations or bond flotations. In addition to all the objections just urged, it leads to extravagance in the conduct of the government. Where there is no proper budget to limit officers in their expenditures, they can and do spend money at will. Warrants can be issued without serious hindrance, and the public misled into believing they are securing splendid results at a low cost. In fact, the tax-levy can be kept very low for a long period; trouble will only come when the warrant output is so great as to render additional issues unmarketable or very expensive, and then the city is confronted with a serious financial problem. Many public officers believe in letting "the devil take the hindmost"; their sole aim is not to be the hindmost. There is considerable improvement in budget-making in this state, but as yet neither the state, nor any of its subdivisions, to my knowledge, has a complete and correct budget system. Fund Accounting Again, the absence of fund or appropriation accounting, even where there is fairly good budget-making, prevents a control over the incurrence of liabilities, and so a check on over-expenditure. Debts contracted one year can be carried over to the next year and paid out of next year's funds or taxlevy, and thus accomplish the same end as occurs where there...