Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-14
The Districts Revenues.

THE nrasent estimates of The assessors of
the tax revenues of the District during the
next fiscal year place the income at S4,1I6,-
a35 10 from which $4,000 will probably be
deducted for the pension funds of the po-
iccmen and the firemen, leaving net re-
turn to the local treasury of S41:O?3o-lo
If this sum is duplicated. dollar for dollar,
with federal money. the District Will have
as spending money next year 81 bl SOU,
or S1.s11, $500 more than the current APP
propriation This current appropriation in
cludes provision for the permanent works,
carrying installments proport onate to the
length of time estimated for their compile
ton. In other words, the District is today
paying for these works they are adj
vanced. on a cash basis, thing which has
probably never before been attempted by
any municipality. and which the District,
if master of its own financial arrangements,
would never itself undertake.
Yet even with these large annual INSTALL
meuts deducted from the budget the amount
available for current needs would not be
large enough Were the great works
financed on a long-term basis with some
form of loan through either bonds or a spe-
cific advance for a term of years, the
81 $4,000 carried by the current law would
hardly suffice to bring the standard of
municipal administration up to the proper
point In framing the budget last spring
Congress acted on The theory that the Dis
trict should not only pay as it goes for
these works. but should skimp all the de-
partments of local government, the schools.
the fire fighters, the policemen, the streets,
the sewers, etc. and should make up the
deficiency between the total of the bill and
the revenues in sight by advances from
the federal treasury. at interest.
Thus the current law is neither one thing
nor the other. 1t is not good business in
the sense in which that term is used by
congressional economists in that it does not
keep the District out of debt, for it accu-
initiates large floating indebtedness. Nor
is it good business" in the sense in which
business men themselves the term. in
that it does not finance the permanent i'm
provements on a long-term basis, while
avoiding floating debts, and at the same
time provide sufficiently for the current
needs 1t is a miserable makeshift which
puts the District in debt a most unsatis-
factory basis forces the present generation
Of tax payers to bear all the burden of the
capital-makng improvements, and pinches
at every turn in the provision for the
growth and equipment of the city.
While Congress was enacting this law 1t
took to add to the burdens of the tax
payers by requiring a heavy addition to the
assessed valuation of property. 1t had al
ready enacted unnecessary personal tax
law If the additional revenues thus
cured are to be paid out in larger INSTALL
ments for the permanent works, or to liqui-
date at once the Districts floating debt to
the federal government this VIII be most
unjust burden the people. If, however,
this largely increased revenue is to be en-
ployed along a new line of policy in def
nitey establishing the business-like method
of meeting the full current needs and the
cost of permanent works as well, then the
increase will be cheerfully borne.
The Commissioners should and doubtless
will present this case squarely to the
houses when they meet by submitting esti-
mates based upon the two points of impera-
Il , local demand, full provision for the
present needs and a long-term liquidation
Of irnDrOVement debt.