The New York herald., 1874-08-24
An Attempted Violation OF Law-The
Finance AppropristiOn.

any part OF any excess of appropriation re-
manning to the credit of Salaries, Depart
ment OF Finance, of any previous year or
years. to any insufficient appropriation Tor
the same purpose in any other year or years.
Inquiry elicits the fact that an unexpended
amount Of $4,000 remains to the credit OF
such salaries from the year 1872, and that
further smaller balance of 81, 400 remains from
1873. When the estimates for the expenses OF
the government for the present year were first
passed the Comptroller asked for $303, 600 for
salaries for the Finance Department.
This was regarded as an exorbitant
amount. The Finance Department, under
these large appropriations, had been accus-
toned to support an army of unclean Bo-
hemians and spies, with whose services the
city could very well dispense; so the Board
of Apportionment through the firm action of
Mcssrs. Vance and Wheeler, cut down the
sum to $270,0O0 The following comparative
statement of the number of employees and the
appropriations for salaries under four Comp
trollers shows that the Board Of Apportion-
ment were by no means excessive in their
economy
1S60.-R. 7. Hawes Comptroller.
CITY ofncers, u; county ofncers. y
amount OF appropriation ............. $Sd''o'
ls64:-M. Brennan, Comptroller.
CITY officers, II county 0mcers, o.
amount OF appropriation. laS'3I3
1S8S.-R. b. Connolly, Comptroller.
City officers, 106; county officers, Q.
Amount OF appropriation. ................ 2o7,sS2
1874. "A. II. Green, Comptroller
City and county officers, lat.
Amount OF appropriation. ............... 270.000
The Comptroller now asks the Board of APP
portionment virtually to nullify it's economy
in reducing the estimate for the Finance De-
partment by adding to the salary list of the
present year $51, 400 of unexpended appropri-
atoms of former years, thus increasing the
amount to 1921, 400, or $751; 900 more than he
originally demanded for his whole salary list
including his ragged army of Bohemians and
informers.
The Board of Apportionment, by adopting
such resolution, would not only stultify their
former action, but would commit on act Of
very questionable legality. The charter pro-
vides that the 'Board of Apportionment may
from time to time, on the application of the
head of any department, authorize the trans
fer from one bureau or purpose to another in
the same department of any sum thereto
fore appropriated for the purpose Of
such department or bureau, but no
department OF officer shall incur any expense
in excess of the sum appropriated. 1t also
provides that ''any balances of appropria-
ions remaining unexpended, after allowing
sufficient to satisfy all claims payable there
from, may, at any time after the expiration of
the year for which they were made, be trans
ferred by the Comptroller, with the approval
of said Board Of Estimate and Apportionment,
to the general fund Of the city and applied to
the reduction of taxation The charter is
thus clear on two points--frst, that, while un-
expended balances may be transferred from
one bureau to another in the same depart
penses of any department for the year must
not in any case be exceeded in the total ex-
penditure Of that department; and next, that
unexpended appropriations must go to the
credit of the general fund and be applied to
the reduction Of taxation.
The law of last session authorizing the re-
opening of the estimates for 1874 gives the
Board Of Apportionment the power ''to trans
fer any appropriation for any year which may
be found by the head of department to be
in excess OF the amount required or deemed
to be necessary for the purposes or objects
thereof, to such other purposes or objects for
which the appropriations are insufficient or
such as may require the same; and if it is
found at the time when the estimate is made
of the expenses of conducting the public bust
ness Of the county (sic) Of New York for the
next succeeding fiscal year, that there will be
surplus or balance remaining unexpended of
any appropriation then existing at the end of
the current fiscal year, such surplus may be
applied to like purposes in the next succeed
ing year" It is under this clause that the
Comptroller seeks to add on to his present
years salary list between fifty and
sixty thousand dollars of former
years unexpended balances. But the law
above quoted does not in any degree modify
or alter the provision of the charter which
provides that no department shall expend
more than the total amount set apart and ap-
propriated for its expenses for the year. The
act which Mr. Green asks the Board of Appor-
tionment to do is, then, clearly an evasion of
the charter. If the Comptroller has had in
his hands or in the City Treasury for two
years an unexpended balance of fifty thou
sand dollars it was his duty to have had it
transferred to the general fund, to be applied
to the decrease of taxation. He has been
singularly remiss in his duty by suffering so
large sum to lie idle when the burden of
taxation has been SO heavy. BY now seeking
to appropriate it to his own salary list for the
present year, after the estimate is finally
closed, he disregards the limitations of the
charter and seeks indirectly to increase his
already large appropriation TO over three hun
dred and twenty-one thousand dollars. Will
the Board of Apportionment lend itself to SO