Some facts about Buffalo’s tax rate are fitting at this time. In a
carefully written article from the pen of the Hon. Charles F. Bishop,
Mayor of Buffalo, and printed in the Sunday _Express_ of April 3, 1892,
the following facts are given:
“Property in Buffalo is assessed at much less than its real
value, and its tax rate has for many years, for all purposes
(State, County and City) except local improvements, averaged
about two dollars per hundred on the assessment. At first
thought this may seem high, but a careful examination of the
reports of other cities shows that the rate elsewhere is
generally much higher. In New York it is $1.95; in Chicago
$5.00; in Brooklyn $2.57; in Cleveland it is $2.79; in
Cincinnati $2.85. And this reasonable rate of taxation is not
obtained by rapid increase of our bonded indebtedness except for
acquiring valuable property for permanent use, or the extension
of great public improvements.
“Indeed, so careful has the increase of indebtedness been
guarded that now with an indebtedness of $11,464,531 the city is
the owner of real estate valued, in 1890, at $7,804,267 and
personal property valued at $6,828,765. Surely this statement
shows a due regard for the tax-payers’ interests; and coupled
with the fact that Buffalo maintains school facilities as good
as those of any city, police and fire departments that for
efficiency are unsurpassed, and furnishes a water supply that
for purity and cheapness is unequaled, it presents a very
well-grounded claim for municipal economy.
“The total of assessments annually shows a gratifying increase
of wealth, and of necessity the expenses of the city must also
increase with greater population to serve and more extended
public improvements to maintain. I am sanguine, however, that in
a few years the increase in values will create a noticeable
decrease of tax rate.”