The Price of a Growing City: Mayor Leary’s 1885 Fiscal Reckoning
Mayor John Leary delivers a scathing audit of Seattle’s municipal debt, high-interest scrip, and the struggle to maintain public services while balancing the budget of a booming town.
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.
In the transfer of office, the Mayor and Council inherited a call for an additional expenditure of $17,000 outside of the municipal levy, with a further $55,000 in actual indebtedness to be provided for out of general revenue. It was deemed expedient, in the interest of municipal economy, to levy a tax for this deficit, as it left a still further deficit in the treasury. It was truly an unfortunate situation for this city that the improvident spirit which prompted the outgoing city councilors to create such a debt had not been suppressed, placing so heavy a burden upon the city and its property holders.
As stated heretofore by me in a message to the Council, it is poor policy to run a city in debt; a depreciated scrip follows inevitably. Each year’s taxation should cover the estimated expenditures. The total valuation of all taxable property, real and personal, within the city for the fiscal years 1884 and 1885 was $4,101,150. On this amount taxes were levied as follows: Road fund, 1 mill; Fire fund, 1 mill; Gaslight fund, 1 mill; Water fund, 1 mill; Cemetery fund, 1/2 mill. Total, 5 1/2 mills.
The receipts for the eleven months ending May 30, 1885, from general revenue and tax levies were $76,734.42. As total expenditures for the same period were $69,852.18, leaving a balance on hand of $6,882.71. I congratulate you, gentlemen, on this showing. It is creditable to your business ability and proves that you have not disappointed the people in the trust they reposed in you. It is the duty of the city to maintain its public works and services, but we must protect the city against undue loss or speculation.
“It is poor policy to run a city in debt; a depreciated scrip follows inevitably. Each year’s taxation should cover the estimated expenditures.”
Mayor Leary’s 1885 report echoes the perennial struggle of Seattle’s city government: the tension between funding critical infrastructure and avoiding unsustainable municipal debt. Just as the Mayor warned against 'depreciated scrip' and uncontrolled spending in the 1880s, today's leaders are still grappling with the same fiscal constraints as they attempt to balance growth with the basic cost of keeping the city running.
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