Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-17
The District Estimates.

According to the latest estimates the
Districts tax revenues during the fiscal
year 1911-12 will be more than s6.6OO,0Oo.
Under the organic actor rather under
the latter day Interpretation of the Or
ganic act, which has been inverted in
practice-this means a total revenue for
expenditure in the District, in the MAIN
tenance of the capital municipality, of
49, 200, OOO the United States matching
each District dollar with dollar of its
own on the half and half principle of
capital partnership. 1t was to have been
expected that the Commissioners. facing
thus a possible revenue of s13, 200, 900,
would prepare estimates for the appro-
priation of that entire sum, leaving to
Congress the responsibility of cutting
down the budget in order to continue
the inequitable process Of forcing the
District to pay on a cash basis for its
extraordinary permanent improvements.
On the contrary, 1t appears that the Com
missioners. while submitting estimates
greater than the appropriations for the
current fiscal year, will not ask Congress
10 appropriate the whole of the COM
pOsite revenue, but will make provision
In their figures for a heavy refund of
District money into the federal Treasury,
in payment of the advances which have
been made from time to time in the past
TO enable the District against its will to
finance its large works On q cash basis.
Heretofore the District Commissioners
have been consistent in insisting upon the
submission of estimates adequately pro-
viding for the current maintenance of
the District. They have made the up
keep of the various departments Of the
District government their first object in
framing the proposed budget, and have
thus kept squarely before Congress year
after year the proposition that the Dis
trtct should be given the benefit Of
long term refunding scheme. to prevent
the accumulation of arrears of needs
leading to a renewal of the process of
encroachments upon the current main
tenance funds in the near future. 1t was
hoped that this new board of Commis-
ing Congress to deal equitabiy with the
District, to give it the benefit Of its own
revenues as far as possible In terms of
more adequate current maintenance and
TO allow IT TO do as all other cities do
and as all large business establishments
will always do, to pay for its extraor-
tended period of years.
There is still time for the estimates TO
be SO shaped that these vitality important
principles are preserved. There Is no
possible advantage in going to Congress
with a budget which abandons the Dis
trict's traditional contention for equitable
treatment. 1t matters nothing that Con-
gress always reshapes the estimates In
accordance with its own policy. The Dis
trict has never abandoned hope that Con-
gress would some day see the injustice
of its course and give 1t the benefit Of
busine sslike, equitable series Of appro-
priations. Far more satisfactory to every
local interest will be the submission Of
budget which once more clearly puts up
TO Congress the issue between the cash
payment and the long term plans Of
financing large works in the District. An
announcement that the Commissioners
have finally decided to return to the
former method will be gratifying.