From the 1870’s to the 1910’s, the County of Worth was Drowning in Debt

The fireworks in Washington (DC) over the debt ceiling makes this story from the October 6th, 1910 Worth County Times relevant. They note that from the 1870’s to 1910, the county was drowning in debt. 

Back in those days, counties could not raise their levies like they can today. On the other hand, counties could borrow money a lot more easily than they can today. 

In 1874, the county had more expenses than there were revenues to meet them. So on November 18th, 1874, the county authorized an issue of bonds in the sum of $12,000. Only $7,000 of those were sold and the last one paid on August 15th, 1884.

In 1882 and 1883, massive flooding washed out nearly every bridge in the county, and there was no money to replace them with. Afterwards, people came in droves to beg the county to do something to rebuild the infrastructure so that travel might resume. So the county issued new warrants, and they had to do so at discount, meaning more deficit spending for the county. More bonds were issued when the new courthouse was built.

By April 30th, 1907, the county had $32,609.71 in outstanding warrants. They were able to stop the bleeding by them. By April 30th, 1910, the amount in outstanding warrants had decreased to $20,260.39.