Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-09
Proposed Segregation in the
District Building.
PLAN IS BEING STUDIED
Change Would Put Tax Ledgers. in
the Collectors Office.
SAVING TINE FOR CITIZENS
Present System Sends One DESTROYS
of Paying His Indebtedness to
Many Officials.

change in the entire method of
handling the Districts income from taxes
is being discussed about the District
building. and the ten-year-old hope that
some day taxpayers will be able to pay
half dozen styles of taxes without Wis
itingr half a dozen different officials and
clerks seems to be on the threshold of
realization. If the changes which are
being talked of pass the discriminating
study of a committee. composed of Au-
ditor Tweedale, Tax Collector Rogers, DR..
William Tindall. Assessor Richards and
department. then the taxpayer who visits
the District building to find out what he
owes will be able to get his information
without stirring out of ten-foot circle.
At present he stirs out Of an area that
could not be covered by forty ten-foot
circles.
The effect of the proposed changes will
be to pace the tax ledgerS in the Office
of the tax collector. They are not there
now.
A Case in Point.
Suppose an extreme case. A man who
wants to pay his tax bill calls at the
office of the tax collector in the basement
of the District building.
How much personal tax do l owe for
this year?'
why, visit the personal tax depart
ment upstairs. They have the personal
tax ledgers.'
And away he goes. returning in ten min
utes with large document with a coupon
attachment. bearing the amount Of his
bill. which he pays.
:By the way, is there anything due
from me on personal taxes for last year,
he asks.
"Oh. l don't know" says the clerk at
the window. go over to such and such
room and ask Miss So and So. She
keeps the arrears of personal taxes. s.s.-,
Whereupon the taxpayer covers a full
hundred yards in going after a bill that
is made UP somewhere else
The taxpayer after settling for his ar
rears, mentions that he would like to
pay his real estate taxes or those of some
friend. The clerk at the tax collectors s
window tells him to go to still another
room on the floor above. Should he have
real estate taxes in arrears there is still
another room to visit.
If he has a water main bill to pay he
finds he must visit an entirely separate
set of offices. Special assessment bills
come from still another place, SO If he
has had curb laid in front of some of
his property he has to go to still another
office to pay the money.
Prospect of a Change.
The chances are much in favor of this
order of things being entirely changed.
The proposition is to arrange all the
tax bill business so that a man who has
many taxes to pay can begin at one
window and move down gradually, SO
that he interviews every one Of the en-
ployes in charge Of the bills within a
few minutes, and within foot or two
Of one another.
A system of greater. value than the
one now in use will be installed whereby
tue Commissioners can know daily, and
perhaps. hourly. the state of the Dis
trict accounts. If the idea of Alonzo
Tweedale, auditor, prevails, there will be
a checking UP of tax receipts and as
sessments every day that will be a pos
tive statement of how much the Dis
trict has at the minute and how much it
ought to get from the taxes on property
still unpaid. There is a trial balance sys-
tenn in vogue at present, however, and
Mr.. Tweedaie's proposition is not to be
construed in any manner as an asSer-
ton that there is not trial balance.