The Transparency Tax: A Seattle Taxpayer Rails Against Red Tape
In 1877, a frustrated taxpayer penned a public letter attacking the County Commissioners for mandating expensive, redundant audits of public records, arguing that government transparency should be an everyday right, not a high-priced administrative burden.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SEATTLE, Jan. 2, 1877. I wish to call the attention of 'Tax Payers' to the extraordinary order of the new Board of County Commissioners, as published in the INTELLIGENCER. I have reference to their appointing A. W. C. to inspect the books and make a detailed report of the financial condition of the county.
In the first place, our law makes it the duty of the 'Grand Jurors' to inspect the books of the county officers and report to the Judge of the U.S. District Court their condition, and the taxpayers have to pay for it.
In the second place, your board requires the publication of each proceeding of the Board of Commissioners, showing what they have done with the people’s money, etc.; and the taxpayers have to pay for it. In the third place, our laws require the Auditor to make out a financial statement of the county at least once a year, and the taxpayers have to pay for it.
I believe that all that is required to be done by this extraordinary order of the new board has been well and faithfully done, and paid for, as required by law, and is a matter of record on the public documents of the county. My understanding of our laws is that any citizen has a right to the inspection of all the books belonging to the county, during office hours, without any order by the Board of Commissioners. The fact that two years ago our county warrants were a drug in the market at 40 to 50 cents on the dollar, and that for more than a year past they have been sought after eagerly by moneyed men at 75 to 90 cents on the dollar, is sufficient proof to me that the reports as given from time to time by our grand jurors, county commissioners and auditor were in the main correct. I am opposed to putting the county to four or five hundred dollars extra expense in these times of mills on the dollar taxes to pay for what has already been done and paid for. I see no excuse for this extra tax, unless to encourage vanity and red tape.
“I see no excuse for this extra tax, unless to encourage vanity and red tape.”
This letter from 1877 echoes modern Seattle debates over government efficiency versus oversight. Just as the writer decried 'red tape' and redundant audits when taxpayer dollars were tight, today's citizens continue to grapple with the tension between wanting fiscal accountability and the reality of administrative costs.
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