New-York tribune., 1915-03-16
No Direct Tax Necessary.


tenement dweller, TO every citizen, that
Controller Prendergast permitted himself
10 be used. even to a limited extent, to
cover up the laundering at Albany over
state finances. What he has done, and
he has done it deliberately, is to confuse
every reader of the figures supplied by his
experts by adding a mass Of irrelevant
and unesSential details.
Fortunately this confusion can be
abolished By discarding every comment
Of the Controller and merely examining
the figures it Is possible to arrive at an
accurate notion of how great was Gov
ernor Whitman's blunder and how unjust
10 this city is the policy Of excessive tax
alton which he has adopted.
Controller Prendergast's experts have
reported that at the end of this year
there will be in the state treasury sur
plus of S3,9O0,000 Governor Whitman
first forecast a deficit of S18,0OO,000 and
then modified it to S10,O00,0OO. The eX-
perts also estimate that at the end Of
1916 there will be deficit Of $5,30O,O00,
unless direct tax be levied, and $5,300,0OO
is all that the Legislature has to provide
for that year.
Assuredly it is real progress in a hori-
zontal reduction of the tax rate to cut the
levy from S1S,OOOOOO to $5,3O0O00, and
the saving to this city will be nearly
$4,000 600; but this is not all that can be
done. OF the S5,3OO,OOO not less than
S4,OOO,OOO is to be spent for canal i'm
provement. Hitherto all such work has
been made a capital charge defra ed from
bond issues. a change of public policy
now is unwise, and the question should be
submitted TO the public this fall, as all
other canal propositions have been.
There is left. then, less than S2OO00OO
as prospective deficit for 1916. But Mr..
Prendergast gives this city assurance that
the Governor means to prune all appro-
priations to the bone, to impose new in
direct taxes. Is it, then, unreasonable to
suppose that the relatively insignificant
prospective deficit reduced in the Control
iers figures from $18,0OO,OOO to less than
tenth of that sum, can be avoided by
rigid economy?
We're this impracticablc there remains
further possibility contributed by Mr.. Prem
dcrgast himself There is an excess of
$27,SOO,OOO in the various sinking funds.
f'the Constitutional Convention should
frame and the people at the fall election
adopt an amendment permitting the state
20 abstain from contributions to the sink
ing fund until The excess had been
absorbed, $S,OOO,O00 of the state revenues
next year could be DETECTED to meet any
possible deficit, and this would be sufficient
to meet all possible deficit, even if the
$4,OO0,OOO canal expenditure is permitted.
The simple truth then, is that no direct
tax is necessary for next year. All the
Controllers talk about methods Of state
financing is beside the mark. For many,
many years the state has followed the
custom of permitting each Legislature to
draw on the revenue Of the current year
fo"expenditurcs charged against the next.
There is nothing new or essentially vicious
in this. If the state , ere going out Of
business next year. then it would have to
raise enough money to pay both the cur
rent years expenditures and those of the
next year, which have been anticipated.
But the state is not going out of business,
and therefore discussion Of this detail is
wholly irrelevant and deliberately intended
TO create confusion, under cover of which
the Governor can escape the consequences
of a ridiculous misstatcment of the finan-
cial situation.
What is vital what is essential for all
the citizens of this community to recognize
is that it has been proposed to levy upon
them unnecessarily a direct tax of SILL
100000 This levy has now been reduced
under challenge to S5,30O,0OO; but this tax
is also unnecessary, as the slightest ex-
animation OF the official estimates proves
The opportunity to expose the whole
blunder, If it is to be accepted as merely
a blunder, came to Mr.. Prendergast, and
he failed to accept it. His statement, in
stead of exploding the whole plan, has
merely created further confusion and left
the real task to be performed by others
Mayor Mitchell and President McAneny
will unquestionably take up the fight on be-
half of this city. But at Albany it should
be made by Republican Senator's and AS
semblymen from Greater New York. For