SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE
Special Correspondence Tax Dispute Ended New York, March 5, 1910. ANOTABLE event of the week in the metropolis was the settlement of the dispute between the city and the lighting companies over...
...The total of unpaid taxes under the Franchise Tax Law, assessed within the limits of the City of New York, amount to above $30,000,000, of which $25,000,000 is assessed within the Borough of Manhattan...
...r. d...
...However, the matter was compromised this week, the gas companies agreeing to pay $7,364,000 as franchise taxes, and the city agreeing to pay back $6,844,000 for lighting during the past eight years...
...The claim of the City and State against the lighting companies was approximately $10,000,000...
...The public service corporations from the beginning refused to pay the tax...
...The Franchise Tax Law was enacted at Albany in April, 1899...
...They asserted the law was unconstitutional...
...In the meantime, the other public service corporations are taking steps to settle with the city and state...
...Cortelyou that the new administration meant business, and it would be best for the gas companies to settle the matter...
...It is assumed that the gas companies did not care to go on with the law suit, having in mind that the Supreme Court of the United States recently affirmed the constitutionality of the Eighty Cent Gas Law of New York...
...Evidently it was shown to Mr...
...The City has not been paying its gas bills while the dispute was on, and the companies claimed the City and State owed $12,000,000 on unpaid lighting bills held up since 1901...
...Right after his inauguration, Mayor Gaynor conferred with Attorney General O'Malley of the State, and they called in George B. Cortelyou, now the president of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York...
...ANOTABLE event of the week in the metropolis was the settlement of the dispute between the city and the lighting companies over the matter of the franchise tax...
...The McClellan administration was unable, or unwilling, to take steps to collect...
...It was the first legislation in New York based upon the principle that corporation franchises may be taxed, in addition to the tax levied upon material values...
Vol. 2 • March 1910 • No. 10
