The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-02

the receipts of the city and it's dis bursements within the meaning of the budget law as heretofore interpreted.
 The excess of operating expendi- lures shown in table 1, Sec. of that report. is more than covered by funds available from the preceding fiscal year on hand October 1, 1916, which were included in the estimated re- ceipts when the budget as last amend : ed was adopted as well as certain so- called extraordinary revenue" avail able during the fiscal year.
 This money was on hand and. with out doubt. the commission had a legal and moral right to expend it for nee- essary public purposes. The commis- sion was not required by law to al low this money to remain idle and unexpended. It was collected for the purpose of paying current expenses of the city government and not hav- ing been expended during the pre- ceding fiscal year it was available for that purpose at the beginning of the fiscal year commencing october 1, 1916.
 Tn opening a budget account the money and liquid assets readily con vertible into money on hand was properly charged or estimated as a budget revenue.
 So considered Gas treated in the .budget) the expenditures did not ex- eeed the budget of estimated rev. enue, as shown in the subjoined tables
 Section of table 1 deals only with new moneys, actually received during the fiscal year. not including any cash or investments converted into cash which were on hand at the close of the fiscal year ended September 90, 1916. and not including the extraor- dinarv revenue derived from fire in surance and the sale of capital as- sets during the fiscal year, and which amounts were legally available for current expenses.
 The items consist of the following. taken from the last annual report pub. lished for the year ended September 30, 1916. and the present report fur r1ishes the data as the extraordinary revenue. to-wit:
 Cash Board of education fund.s 4.042 4c General fund. net balance. 1os,5o1.ss Library fund ........... 501so General fund. investments in
 public improvement esti-
 mates ................... 70,5S5.3s
 Total s................. $1Ss,6So.97 Amount set aside for bills
 payable of annexed munic-
 qualities $500. DO
 Balance of cash avail
 able September 30, 1916 $1T4.S30.97 Plus extraordinary revenue 24,SIS.19
 Total additional avail
 ahle revenue not shown
 on IaDlG l S1 Qq 72A. l 6
 This amount is an operating rev. enue. and therefore the city expended for current operations s92.055.57 less than it's available revenue. Thia amount is arrived at by deducting $10T,66S.59, the amount of the excess expenditures shown on the accounts ants report from s19s.72416. the to- tai additional available revenue not shown on Table l.
 I also call attention to the fact that S25, 44s.15 cash transferred from the interest fund into the sinking fund is treated in Table l. Section as a cur. rent expense, when it was not, in fact, spent, but simply transferred from the current ledger to the sink ing fund, which is capital ledger account. Deducting this amount from the total expenses charged by the auditors in Table 1 Section 1, it is oSCfi tildt tilC SdiiCHL SApGHS6 W ds $117. 7.504.72 less than the revenue avail able during the fiscal year just ended
 Now as to Section of Table 1. il shows that $151, ,490.29 was expended for capital outlays. If the above $117,- 504.72, which was available as shown above. he deducted from $151, 49o. .29 which was expended, 1t leaves bal ance of $33s9s5.57 for capital outlays in excess of amount of available casf revenue which the budget law permits the city to expend s1o0,000 per an mum in excess of revenue and thus il is seen that the city could have ex- pended s66,014.4S more than it did ex- pend for capital outlays and still have lived within the budget law. Respect fully submitted,
 NJ M ULLMAN.
 City Attorney.