The evening times., 1900-02-09
4 GREAT CIfY'S EXPENSES
Over Ninety Millions included in
New York's 1900 Budget.
Items Which Swell the Cost of Gov
ernment-Sinecures for Politicians.
Man Paid SG1 a Month as Tender
of Drawbridge Which Is Never
Opened-SaIary List Well Filled.

| tApeuStS VIII bt SIa ,Oto, ,AO9.o4 SItdleT
year than were the running expenses OF
the territory included in Greater New
York during the year preceding consoida-
tion. The excess of the cost of go5ern-
ment for three years over the cost in 1891
amounts to s37, 7,497, ,6O2.2S.
For paying the expenses of government
in 1900 the budget provides $50, 77S,S72.lS.
The total amount of the budgets made in
1897 by the cities. towns, and villages
which were welded into Greater New York
when the charter went into effect ON jan
uary /. 1898, was s73, 400, ,726.14.
This sum represented the estimated ex-
penses of the new city on the basis of what
the cost of the several city, town, and vii
lage governments had been in the past
The various officials of these municipal di-
visions who before consolidation, were
charged with the duty of providing for the
| public expenses were required by law 10
make such provision in 1897 as would be
sufficient to pay those expenses in 1895 if
there should be no consolidation. They
were required to proceed as though the
charter had never been passed, and it was
|
together, would be sufficient 10 meet the
expenses Of the greater city in the first
year of lis life.
| 1t has been asserted, and generally be-
lieved, that the cities, towns, and Villages
that were about To be merged in New York
| city kept ioN1 their estimates to some
extent in the nope of shifting tho neces-
Sifv for raising he NJ, Ngri
county, which was looked upon as a Do-
nanza bv the outlying districts II is also
true that the salaries of some of the pub
lie officials. which are now paid out of
taxation were then paid oGt ot fees
Allowances for these and similar items
might raise the actual cost of government
before consolidation TO S75, ,O0O, COO The
figures already given, however, are the on
ly official ones available. and in the alb
sence of supplementary statements must
be accepted fairly representing the run
ming expenses of the five boroughs before
they came under a single government
They were used as basis for action by the
board of estimate in 1898
Even in the first year OF consolidation
the sum that had been found sufficient to
meet the needs of the people before they
became citizens of Greater New York was
found insufficient. Revenue bonds to the
amount of s7,175.S50 were issued TO be
paid for out of the budget of 1899.
This table shows the increase in eXpendi- |
lures, year by year. since consolidation
took place. assuming that the disburse- |
ments of 1897, of which there is no total |
record, were practically the same as the |
estimates for the following year:
1897, $7S, 400. 726.14; 1898. $50. .576, ,517.O2: |
1899, sS6. .344 POI Is: 1890. $50. as. .972.4s.
While sl7,37S, ,2i6.34 more will be raised 1
and spent in 1900 in Greater New York for /
public purposes than was raised and spent
In 1897. 1t does not follow that the entire /
amount can be credited to extravaganza. |
On the contrary, a very large part of it /
represents the cost Of extending TO tn nth
er boroughs the methods that were ,sIlow-
ed in the old city of New York before the
other boroughs were joined to Manhattan
and the Bronx
Among the more considerable Of The
Items which have added TO the cost OF gov
ernment is the increase in the salaries of
the police and street cleaning departments |
and the advance in the salaries of their
employees TO the Manhattan level. the ex-
tension OF the courts, the increase in sink
ing fund payments for the redemption of
expenses in proportion with the increase
in population.
In Queens before consolidation. there
were 80 paid firemen and 100 policemen
fhere are now SO firemen and $50 police
men. Formerly the police courts were
also civil courts, and many of them we're
self-sustaining. Now the police court at
Far Rockaway alone costs about SIG 600 a
year. and three new municipal courts have
been established
In one village in Queens the police prior
to consolidation cost $500 a wear while
now for the same territory the detail costs
$50, 900 a year
Extension of metropolitan machinery of |
government to the thinly settled districts
taken into the city by consolidation has
q golden opportunity for loading !
the payrolls with men drawing city sala-
ries who have little or nothing to do This
has been taken advantage of as fully as the ,
civil service Jaw will allow to provide a |,
livelihood for political leaders with claims
upon the party IN power. A case in point
s that of George Murray. of Edgemere,
T. l.. who draws SEA a month as tender of
/ drawbTidgo, the draw of which is never
opened, owing 20 Tic fact that Norton's
'reek, VII cH il spans. IS closed TO naviga- /;
ion. Hundreds of such snecures might :
e found ir the list CT the 40 600 employees !.
( the city t.
But it is not in the outlying boroughs :,
lone that consolidation has been made the =
xcuse for distributing places of which the ;,
ay is good and the duties light among =
olitical favorites. The Municipal Coun- :
il. which meets once a week has a force :.
{ sergeants-at- arms which cost the city :,
( 900 a year. Michael G. Padden, who is !;
lfiuential in Patrick ]. DIVERS district
the chief sergeant t-arms. and his N
ssistants are apportioned between Man ii
attain, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. q
S one or more policemen are always in .
tendance when the Council meets, the ;;
eed for such force is not apparent. !,
In the departments of highways sewers, :
ridges, water supply, public buildings,
ealth, and in fact in nearly all the de- .
artments of the city government, are =
ositions of similar character, existing g
nder the charter and filled by legal ap- :
which might be abolished with =
ut in the least crippling the public SER .
ice The complaint among the heads of =
lie departments. however, is not that they =
re too many, but too few to supply the =,
emand and meet the pressure of the place =
unters.
In every department there is a waiting =
st, and the effort is TO keep the salary u
st filled without exceeding the appropri- :,
lion rather than to save money by dis y
lissing employees simply because there p
appens to be nothing for them 10 do. z