Judge Irwin Wipes Out $224,000 in County Road Bonds
Chehalis County's entire 1891 road-bond program is ruled illegal for blowing past the constitutional debt limit — and the taxpayers' paper calls it a deliverance.
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.
Judge Irwin has at last rendered a decision on the county bond case, in which the $224,000 indebtedness voted in May, 1891, is declared illegal. The grounds upon which the decision is rendered are that the legal indebtedness at the time the bonds were voted exceeded the constitutional limit. Judge Irwin's decision is lengthy and exhaustive, and cites the law in an able manner. This decision is certainly favorable to a large majority of the people of Chehalis county, and will be hailed with delight by the taxpayers and citizens of the county. — Economist
“This decision is certainly favorable to a large majority of the people of Chehalis county, and will be hailed with delight by the taxpayers and citizens of the county.”
A county borrowing beyond its legal limit and a court voiding the whole program is the 1893 version of every modern fight over debt capacity, levies and what a local government may pledge without a vote. Chehalis County's taxpayers won this round; the roads that were supposed to be built simply waited.
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