New-York tribune., 1909-10-31
CITY FINANCES
Continued from first page,

IN SO lar as 1t goes. The disgracef,l
manner in which that power has been
abused Is the best evidence. however
That the charter provisions do not SUI
ncient1y safeguard the exercise OF that
Power If the present system of spcn ling
Tax revenues in anticipation of their coli
nction is to be continued, some adequate
means should be devised for preventing
the Controller from using the total tax
/ loNy each yecr as huge credit placed at
his disposal To do with as he pleases. His
exercise of the power TO issue revenue
bonds should he confined specifically by
The charter TO the amount of money actu-
ally required for the payment of budget
appropriations for the year and for the
year only. The practice OF issuing re-
enue bonds in anticipation Of the collcc-
tlon OF arrears Of former years levies is
wrong in principle and disastrous il
practice
The silly pretence urged in eXtenuation
of the oity's failure to collect taxes due
10 be paid each year. that delinquent
taxpayers are compelled to Pay interest
1T per cent per annum upon arrears.
should not be accepted as Il good ex-
cuse for the failure OF city officials
promptly TO collect the tax revenues each
year. Money from these taxes is worth
/ more to the city if promptly collected
/ than per cent per annum
The facts given to the public in this
/ series of articles make it evident that
some adequate means sho,ild be devised
to dispose of any revenue bonds that out
stand for more than one year against
uncollected taxes. Much of the chaos
which exists in the city's accounts at the
present time is due to the necessity of
renewing these outstanding bonds each
year. This necessity has been largely
responsible for the practice of issuing
revenue bonds for terms of years at eX-
Cessiye rates of interest.
1t is not pretended by The Tribune
that the whole subject of. the conduct of
the city's finances has been adequately
dealt with IN the short series of articles
which have been published. The ques
/ tion is a very large one and involves Sc
rious considerations that have not even
been mentioned in the series. The only
object has been TO bring to public atten
tion some OF the more serious abuses
that have been grated on 70 the city's
financial system and show the effect
those abuses have had in creating CON
dition of chaos which is slowly but sure
~ doing permanent injury to the city
credit.
The financial transactions of New York
arc 10y far the largest and the most com
plicated of any single municipal corpora
tion in the world. Those of the city OF
London may be larger in the aggregate,
but the financial administration of Lon
don is divided into boroughs, each of
which. to a greater or less extent. CON
trols its own money matters. Some idea
Of the magnitude Of this city's financial
transactions is to he had from the volume
of the gross receipts and expenditures
from the time consolidation of the
greater city went into effect. eleven years
ago, TO the present day. The receipts of
the city treasury from January 1, 1898,
to December 81. 1905, we're. according to
1 the official reports of the Controller.
s., 9;3 II .63S, and the expenditures We're
81 90g 21.,094, leaving d cash balance to
the credit of the city treasury on De
cember Il, 1905 of S23,9295i4 The
gross receipts Of the sinking funds dur
ing the same period were S401, ,10J.602
and the gross expenditures Si03 2G2 GS6
leaving "A cash balance to the credit of
the sinking funds at the end of last year
OF S3.S42,916. According TO these figures
the actual cash transactions of the city
during this period of eleven wears
totalled the enormous sum of S6652 IDS.
or annual average turnover of
SGo4. 1896.
Any critical examination of financial
transactions involving such an enormous
revenue and expenditure would be a tre-
mendous undertaking, even if the most
modern system of keeping accounts were
used and if there were an effective vs.
TEN Of controlling accounts. The citv's
system Of bookkeeping is not modern
and there is no system OF controlling ac-
counts This defect is not due, however.
to any accidental chaos The clear and
/ lucid manner in which unimportant de-
tails are tabulated in the published
/ financial statements clearly shows that
! the great glaring defects are due to de-
| sign rather than TO constitutional faults
in the existing system.
A DINNER FOR HENRY WHITE.
/ Paris. oct. 3o.-M Pinchon tho Foreic1
! Minister paVa dinner l...--..