New-York tribune., 1920-10-14
School Budget
Seems Doomed
ToCurtailnnent
Health Department and Per-
haps Some Others May Be
Given Preference Over
Education in Final Figures
Roard Holds a Hearing
CITY Employees Open Fight
to Prevent Any Change in
the Tentative Document

III. fight Of the commissioners and
..,resentatives of employees Of the
..rious city departments to keep in the
1927 budget all that has been allowed
- the tentative document, and q little
ii. more if possible, began yesterday
=. the first public hearing held by the
poard of Estimate. The board indi-
Gated its willingness to replace a few
minor items in the estimates of the
usa1th Department, Fire Department
end some other departments which had
beeu excluded by the budget commit
TOO but in the end hopes to cut down
materially the tentative budget of
ss4S,s94049.
There was no general discussion
vben the S92.OOo,0oo estimate of the
Board Of Education, outside of appro-
,-;st;ons for new schools. was reached,
Sut il was the general sentiment of the
hoard that the Health Department and
.srhaps some other departments would
bs given preference over the educa
,ional budget. Upon the final disposi-
tion Of the educational budget, the
largest to be handled, depends in large
MEASURE the amount of the final allow
snces to other departments.
Health Placed First
Az the matter now stands, the Board
~ Estimate will rest upon the recon-
mendation of the budget committee
that the requests of the Board of
Fducation be carried, with an allow
once Of AZ mills on the assessed prop
ortr valuations for 1921, amounting to
sS S720.s8O. with the further under
sanding that If the board finds any
otbor sums available they shall be
sdded Serial bonds and corporate
stock shall be applied to the building
urogram and the remainder OF the
allowance left for the state to raise.
Comptroller Charles l.. Craig put the
following hypothetical question to DR.:
Royal S. Copeland, Commissioner of
Health:
millions short OF meeting the estimates
Of the Board of Education. because of
the burden imposed by mandatory leg
jslation, is there any part Of your bud
get REQUESTS that you could eliminate
in order to help toward the educational
requests ~
mot & dollar replied Commissioner
COpeland what is the use of an edu-
cation if you have no body? l am for
both. but if we can't have both l think
health should come first
T. H. La Guardia, President of the
Board of Aldermen, called attention tc
the fact that there were other city de-
par.ments whose requests could be re-
duceG to help ont the Department Of
Education.
yes" said the Comptroller, 'I am
going to give Borough President Cur
ran a chance to say whether he will
cut million or so from his estimates
for that purpose l will vote to give
egery dollar either to the Department
Of Education or the Board of Health
which the borough president will elm
mate from his own budget
Borough President Curran started to
reply, but Mayor Eylan interceded with
the remark that they had all been get
ting along very peacefully during the
hearing and that it would do no good
to start anything"
Few Citizens Present
The number nj citizens who attended
the first public hearing was small
Copies of the tentatiYe budget, weigh
ing nearly ten pounds, were only dis
tributed few minutes before the hear
ing began The public was told that
because Of the delay in placing the
document in their hands, any one in
-erested in any department shall have
the right to discuss it at subsequent
hearings. The departments were called
in the orGer in which they appeared
in the printed tentative budget and
were disposed of rapidly.
The members of the board were
greatly interested in DR.. Copeland S
plea for more food inspectors. He
asked for thirty more men and said
those he had were doing excellent work
IN inspecting foodstuffs that were
brought into market and found unfit
10 eat He said that not only were
these men guarding the health of the
city BY condemning bad foodstuffs, but
that he had received reports recently
mat whole cargoes of good bananas had
been taken out to sea and dumped in
order to keep the prices up. Thorough
inspection would also prevent this sort
Of thing, he said.
The Board of Estimate will hold an
other public hearing to-day.