Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-06

with revenue of the District of Colum-
| bia or the maintenance Of trust fund
| in the Treasury for such moneys. The
controller of the Treasury, in a decision
! rendered April 3; 1908. addressed to the
| Secretary of the Treasury. goes into an
exhaustive discussion on this partfcu-
lar point, holding in substance, that the
revenues derived from taxation and
otherwise within the District OF Co
lumbia belong to the United States and
that Congress in making provisions for
the support of local government while
appropriating one-half out of any
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise
appropriated and one-half out of the
revenues of the District of Columbia,
the true intent and meaning of this
action is merely to indicate the manner
in which the revenues to meet such ap-
preparations must be collected, and
that the practical construction put
upon this language during all these
years has been to trust the District OF
Colum bia as a creditor of the United
States to the extent of one-half of the
appropriations made and debtor as to
the other half and to credit it with the
revenues and other taxes collected and
paid into the Treasury The controller
further says that if the municipal cor
poration of the District of Columbia
were considered as distinct legal
entity, Independent of the United States
in its relation to such revenues, this
would indicate that the revenues were
Treasury and accounted for as the rev
enues of the municipal corporation
of the District of Columbia and not as
part of the general fund in the Treas
ticular source. For the reason stated
by the controller in his decision he de-
cl1ned to permit an account to be kept
on the books of the Treasury as a trust
fund account showing the payment into
the Treasury of revenues of the Dis
trict of Columbia, thus indicating that
the account of the District of Columbia
shall be kept only as personal account
between the United States and the Dis
trict and that all revenues paid into
the Treasury shall be treated as pay
mentS on account and credited to the
District as such.
1T is only within recent years that
any legislative provision whatever has
been made for the statement of any ac-
count at any time between the United
States and the District of Columbia, and
this grew out of that period when APP
preparations made for local purposes
exceeded twice the amount of the rev.
enues of the District and during which
time Congress authorized the Treasury
to advance moneys to the District to
make good it's deficit in revenues charg
ing an annual interest of 2 per centum
on the amount advanced. The several
acts authorizing these advances pro-
vided for an annual statement of ac-
count between the United States and
the District by the auditor of the
District. representing the District of
Columbia, and by the auditor for the
State and other departments, represent
ing the United States.
And from what sources is the in
formation which enters into the prepa-
ration of this statement obtained?
There is no account on the books of the
Treasury Department which shows any
revenue of the District of Columbia;
there is no trust fund in the Treasury
which shows any revenue of the Dis
trict of Columbia and consequently. in
order to make up this statement and
in order to find out just what the finan-
cial relations in any one fiscal year
have been between the federal govern
ment and the local municipality, it be-
Department is concerned. to gather the
data from mere memoranda.
q. S. Pays for Ten Months.
THE bulk of moneys collected by the
District of Columbia is received in May
of each year at the. time when the
taxes on real estate and personal prop
erty are due and payable. For the
first ten months of every fiscal year
only very small proportion of the to-
tai revenues collected by the District
within a year are received and paid
into the Treasury. Yet during the same
ten months the District is meeting all
its expenses under appropriations. and
in this time expanding the larger part
of it's appropriations. Every District
appropriation act passed by Congress
contains a provision that the Commits
sioners shall not make requisition upon
larger amount during the fiscal year
than they make on appropriations
arising from revenues of the District.
And yet. as matter OF TACT. the United
States is supporting and paying prac-
tieaHyC the entire expenses of the Dis
trict for ten months in each fiscal year
from federal revenue, as the revenue
which the District should collect and
pay into the Treasury to meet it's part
of the expenses for this period is not
collected until the last two months of
There ID no intention on my part to
criticise the absence Of any accounts in
the Treasury Department which would
4 half and-half plan. If there had
been during all the years since the
passage of the act of 1878 any recogni
ton of the half-and-half system by the
Treasury Department it would have
been necessary to have carried upon
the books of the Treasury a proper Sc
ries of accounts that would deal with
the District of Columbia and the rev.
enue of the District of Columbia as
distinct proposition and apart from the
United States. But, as / have before
shown, there are not such accounts on
the books of the Treasury, there are no
revenues of the District of Columbia in
the Treasury Department and when
Congress appropriates funds for local
government all those moneys are act
ually obtained from miscellaneous re-
ceipts of the United States. If there
should be shown by these annual state
ments prepared following the close of
a fiscal year that the District of Co
lumbia has paid into the Treasury a
greater amount of money than it's
share of appropriations that balance is
a part of the miscellaneous receipts of
the United States and is used in meet
ing appropriations made by Congress
for any and every purpose.
IF Congress is to continue the half
and-half, l trust that you will incor-
porate in your report suggestions for
legislation which will make it an
actually instead of fiction. To do
this, it will be necessary for Congress
to direct the treasurer to accept de-
posts of tax moneys collected in the
District of Columbia as trust fund,
to be held to meet the so per cent of the
annual appropriation chargeable to the
District Inasmuch as the District gov
the action of Congress what the total
amount of the appropriations will be.
it will be further necessary. IL the
half-and half is to be made an actual
ity. to refrain from levying any tax
until after the appropriations are made,
then divide the total of the appropria-
tions by two and apply the result to
the assessed values of the District of
Columbia. and fix tax rate that will