Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-08-30


, somewhat as follows: Some time be
! for the beginning of the fiscal year
the mayor or chief financial officer
requests the head of each department
| or office, to prepare detailed eStl-
mate of the amounts Of money that
he VII. require to meet the eXpendi
| ture Of his department for the ensu-
| ing year In some cities the esti-
mates are examined by comparison
with departmental records. as they
! should be, but in most cases this is
not the case. The financial officer
also prepares an estimate of the rev
enues from sources other than general
taxes that will probably be received
during the ensuing year, basing the
estimate on the experience of pre-
viOus years. These estimates of eX.
penditures and revenues which con
stitute what is coming to be called
tent. budgets" are then submit.
ted to the board, or other authorizing
body for action.
After the amount which is to be
authorized for expenditure has been
determined upon, the amount of es'
timated revenues is deducted there
from in order to ascertain what
amount must be raised by general
taxation This amount, divided by the
total assessed valuation of property,
gives the tax rate. The funds thus
appropriated usually provide only for
meeting current operating and main
tenance expenses of the city. Funds
for permanent improvements and
other property which has a continu-
ing value are generally raised by sell.
ing bonds. A legal requirement that
is common in all cities is that no liza
bilities shall be incurred and no
money spent except pursuant to the
appropriation ordinances and the
funds so expended must not exceed
fixed amounts set aside for the spe
cific purposes. Notwithstanding the
legal Oh 1cks which have been placed
around the expenditure Of our local
funds, recent happenings have shown
that these safeguards have been re
peatedly ignored under the plea oil
public policy.
1T will be seen that control over
the raising of public funds has been
rersistently demanded by our law,
makers, despite the fact that viola.
tons Of the statute have been al,
lowed to 60 unpublished; until recent
years, the Justification for the ex.
penditure Of public moneys has re.
ceived but scant attention from those
who should be most interested, name.
ly, the taxpayers. If We consider
that the business of a municipal cor
poration is primarily to perform Ger
tain kinds of service for the benefit
of the community as a whole and that
the cost Of this service must be borne
by the community, this Indifference
on the part of the taxpayers to the
disbursing of their own money be-
comes more inexplicable
The accounting methods of admin
istrative organizations like a city gov
eminent, which, until the census bu-
reau Uniform classification of revenues
and expenditures was compiled, were
usually pretty bad, but excuse can be
found in the fact that the system in
use is likely to be traditional. In
the old days of administrative gov
ernment in the United States, the f.
nancial operations of the municipality
were few. The city needed to rec
ognize practically nothing more than
the responsibility of the town treas
urer. So long as the books showed
that he had accounted for every cent
received the town was satisfied. As
the municipal activity grew, paving,
sewage, etc, we're gradually added on
small scale. The question then
arose whether this or that admins,
tration Of town affairs was the more
economical. Each administration told
itself that 1t must show a low cost.
1t therefore, when possible, neglected
to allow for depreciation or for an
but imperative maintenance and
showed expenditure at its lowest
basis. When, on the other hand. con-
ditiOns reached a point at which re-
ne%als became necessary, the admin.
istration in charge pointed to them
as really charges upon the past, or
treated them as capital investments,
thus shifting the odium Of increased
cost. Most of the smaller cities make
no distinction now between the cost
OF a new fire engine and the cost of
painting an old one, or between the
cost of new boiler and the vases
of man to run it. The result of all
this was that in most cities no cor
rect figures of actual cost have been
It would be hardly fair
to say that the failure to report actual
cost of municipal operations was due
entirely to lack Of courage; it might
have been quite as often due to in
difference or to ignorance of the real
situation. When, a few years ago
the public began to agitate the cues.
ton of public as compared with pri. |
vate gas works, water works., tele-