CITY AND TOWN BONDS.
The bill [S. 64] to amend Section 1 of an act authoriz_ng cities and towns to issue bonds for the purpose of funding their indebtedness, being read the third time--
Mr WRIGHT said he was opposed to the bill, because it did not limit as to the time that the bonds issued run, and favored the reducing of the rate of interest on the bonds where it can be done. The bill provides that two-thirds of the Trustees or Council can issue these bonds payable at any time and place, and the rate of per cent. on the bond shall not exceed 6. The discretion as to the time that bonds shall run has been refused time and again by Boards of Trustees in this State. Another thing, that bill provides that when the bonds are issued, that a sinking fund shall be assessed for the payment of those bonds. Suppose the Trustees of a town in this State issue bonds and take up the old bonds, and the new bonds, say run ten years; suppose sinking fund taxes are levied annually and are collected semi-annually of the tax-payers of the town, what is the use of the money thus collected? The fact is, all of this sinking fund tax, under the provision of that bill, will lie in the hands of Town Treasurers. They reap the profits of the sinking funds. There ought to be a limit placed in the matter of selling bonds by towns, Counties and cities. The bonds should fall due only as fast as the people page: 116[View Page 116] pay their money for taxes, and the money be paid directly on the bonds and not permit the Treasures to have the use of this moeny. He did not believe it was good policy to impose upon our children any bonded debt, but favored paying off the bonds ase arly as possible.
Mr. MARSHALL stated that the object of the bill was to help the cities and towns to refund the debt at a lower rate of interest; that during the panic almost every city and town in the State of Indiana built public buildings and sold their bonds on security to erect those buildings, and now they ask, for the purpose of enabling to a lower rate of interest. Inasmuch as it did not meet with the approbation of some members here, he moved that bill be referred to the Committee on Cities and Towns.
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. FANCHER offered a resolution that a Committee of three appointed to consider the expediency of establishing a State Educational Institution somewhere near the center of the State.
It was laid on the table.
