The New York herald., 1874-07-21
Tho Park Department Appropriations.

Aho r"rk department ApprOprh~sAOhss
The letter addressed by Messrs. Vance and
Wheeler to the President of the Park Depart
ment sets forth clearly the duty of the Board
of Apportionment and of the several depart
ments of the city government in relation to
the estimate Of the annual expenses OF con-
ducting the public business of the city and
the appropriation Of money therefor. The
charter requires that each department shall
make provisional estimate of all its ex-
penses for the year before the fiscal year COM
mences, and that such estimate shall specify
in detail the salary of each of the officers,
clerks, employees and subordinates The Board
Of Apportionment are authorized to pass upon
these estimates, making such alterations as
they may deem fit, and, after action by the
Board Of Aldermen, to finally fix and deter
mine the appropriations. 1t seems clear from
this that the appropriations to be finally
fixed by the Board Of Apportionment, and
the amount of which is to be raised by
taxation, are intended by the law to include all
the salaries Of officers, clerks and ordinary
employees Of the several municipal depart
Parks this decision is likely to cause some
embarrassment, because system has pre-
vailed by which only small proportion OF
the salaries of the officers and employees has
heretofore been paid out Of the annual amount
raised by taxAtion for the expenses of the de-
partment, and the larger share has been paid
out of the moneys raised for construction ac-
count and charged to the permanent debt OF
the city. But although the change from an
illegal to legal practice may be temporarily
inconvenient there is no doubt that it should
have been made. The principle involved Is
one of much importance. 1t does seem deslr-
able that the annual expense of conducting
the business of the city government should be
understood by the taxpayers each year, and
should be met by the years taxation Ii
we are to be- allowed to put the
salaries of city officials into the perma-
nent debt of the city we can have no oppor-
tunity of knowing what our expenses really
are, and shall be very certain to bankrupt
ourselves in the end. 1t is bad enough to
''bridge over our stocks and bonds as they
compared with the ruinous and reckless policy
of putting the salaries Of our public officials
into permanent debt bonds and paying seven
per cent interest on them for series OF
years.
There can be no desire to cripple the Park
Department SO far as any necessary expendi-
ture or any desirable work is concerned, and
there is no doubt that the Board of Apportion.
ment will act as generously in the matter o
the issue of bonds for that department as thu
interests of the city will warrant The current
year is now more than half over, and il
the next years estimates the require
ments of the charter can be taken into
consideration, and the amount appro
priated to the department regulated
accordingly. The best plan to be pursued q
present seems to be to conform to the law ant
make the best headway possible with tn,
money at command Of the Department Their,
cannot be any work now in course of prose
cution on the parks that will be seriously in
jured by brief postponement and with sucl
postponement the services of architects anc
engineers can be very well dispensed with, a
least for the present. The President of the
Department, although an enthusiast in tht
prosecution of all works of adornment ant
improvement, will no doubt approve of {
strict construction of the law. To be sure, hi
has legal opinion from the Assistant Corpo
ration Council to the effect that he can con
tiuue to pay salaries out of the money raised
for another purpose by bonds which go int
the city debt; but probably that opinion
would not have been written had it been de
layed another day. Like the famous opinions
OF Jack Bunsby it is overruled by events
however consoling it may have been at tn
moment of its delivery.