City Council Slashes Infrastructure Budget
Council finance committee moves to tighten the city's belt, cutting bridge and sewer projects despite resistance.
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.
The task of cutting the estimate of the city's expenses for the year 1905 down to the income was accomplished by the council finance committee in a special session last night. The sum of $47,000 asked for the Eleventh Street bridge was cut out entirely. The park board's request for $25,000 was pruned down to $24,200. The city librarian's estimate was cut from $14,700 to $10,528. Councilman Hawley fought to have $62,000 appropriated for the extension of the Edison trunk sewer, but his efforts were futile. The committee decided to put $10,000 into the general expense fund, and this amount may or may not be used for the sewer extension.
“The sum of $47,000 asked for the Eleventh Street bridge was cut out entirely.”
Budget deliberations in 1904 echo today's fiscal tensions at Tacoma City Hall, where officials routinely grapple with the political cost of infrastructure maintenance versus immediate tax levy thresholds.
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