Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1909-02-17

where they lead. feel confident that
your honorable body will proceed in a
businesslike way to meet the stu.
ation.
The aim should be further, not
merely to keep expenditures within
revenues or within revenues plus cash
on hand, but to accumulate and main.
tain sufficient working surplus for
carrying the government from one tax
time to the next without being re.
lquired to resort to registered warrants.
There is widespread impression
that the severe cuts in appropriations
at the special session in 1904 resulted
i'm expunging the then deficit of nearly
$1,000 and the accumulation OF a
surplus of more than 100000, and
I that the cuts were required only TEN.
= porarily until that result could be AT.
tanned and that then II would be safe
to resume the former figures. Such
e was not the fact. Those cuts, amount
ing to something over 100000 a year,
resulted in little more than bringing
expenditures within revenues. The
deficiency was made up by change in
the time OF collecting taxes, which
b brought an additional half.year's or a
total OF one and Il half years taxes
into one year.
The last Legislature succeeded in
bringing the appropriations within the
estimated available funds for the. cur.
rent period, including cash on hand
and estimated revenues, but without
making full allowances for additional
appropriations that might be and usu
ally are required at the succeeding SEES
sion for the same period; apparently
. only the nln-eXpenditurc of appropri
atoms To the amount Of about $500, O0C
will prevent deficiency at the end OF
the period If such additional apprO
priatiOns are made. The need as well
as the difficulty of making ends meet
by material reductions in expenditures
l. or increase in revenues, Is shown by
the fact that, Notwithstanding the care
j exercised by the last legislature, the
appropriations made and required Il
be made for the current period vii
probably exceed the actual revenue!
for the same period by more than hal
a million dollars.
The aim should be. still further. t
> avoid all not strictly necessary eX
y pense so that as much as possible ma!
be available for what might be calleC
: advance work as distinguished from
the mere keeping of the machinery o
y government in operation. To appro
> PIRATE In excess of actual needs 70
= Operating expenses is not only to vast,
" the peoples money but to deprive then
= of needed internal improvement an,
u means for developing the Territory.
revenues.
The desired end can be attained b.
& reduction in expenditures or increas
In revenues or both. II requires hard
ly less courage or frmness to propOs
or insist on an increase In revenu
than II does to propose or insist on
., decrease in expenditures. Taxes an
other revenues are already high pc
y" capita, although II Is true also that tn
y people of this Territory are better abb
~ to pay high taxes than the people /
~ many other places.
= What may be classed as taxes pre-
per of one kind and another amounte
70 during the last fiscal year to Sos
II per capita on the assumption of pc
'e pulation Of 10000. What may b
y classed as In the nature of take
: amounted to an additional S1.61 pc
:" capita. Other revenues amounted I
y 1924 Per acpita, making total {
:" $3.50. The customs and interni
W revenue receipts of the Federal Co
- eminent in this Territory amounted I
- s9i5, making grand total Of S251
VI per capita. or an aggregate Of NOR
" than -four and quarter million do
y lars.
!" We sometimes attempt to dCceiy
q ourselves with the thought that tn
property tax itself Is only one pc
cent, when in reality It is higher tina
in most other places, for the reaso
70 that property is assessed at its fu
IL value. That, moreover, Is only one
"' many sources of revenue, and produce
'' only half of the total.
u II may be suggested that the mat
81 rial growth of the Territory has bee
such that the revenues must have l
'e creased largely since the loss of Gu
20 toms receipts nearly nine years az
'S' This has not wholly been the cas-
d. Valuations became so inflated SOC
Gu after annexation than many of the
No have since fallen and the aggrega
~ that Is taxable has increased but i
az tie. The general property. taxes dr
~ ing the last fiscal year were only So
"e 900 more than they were in the fisc
year 1904, The income taxes we
W less by 100000 than they were In l9C
u" the first year Of the tax. The increa
g" In taxes of all kinds since 1902 h
hiS been only about $1S7 900, which is b
," little less than the increase In revenI
" from all sources and less than enoul
-, to meet the interest and sinking ful
Va requirements for the public debt, mo
IN of which has been incurred duri
u that DeriOd and DerhaDs less TN