The Washington times., 1920-06-22
PREPARE new
!. D. c. TAXRATE
Officials Complete Task Of Re-
Wsing Fiscal Affairs to CO.
40 Taxation Plan.

asnlnxtons new YAK TAtes which
will be very close to tn. limit au-
thorised by Congress. probably will
be Announced this week.
Officials OF the District government
in charge OF the finances. have been
working on the hEures on which the
Conn ssioners will base the new
rate and have about completed tLe'r
work.
1t ts estimated that the new tax
rate, will be between 81. 80 and 81 per
hundred, instead OF the old tax OF
tl.6O per hundred. Most OF the ofi-
cisls estimate the tax rate nearer Z.
than $3.50. There is no intention Of
changing the basis OF taxation Irom
the two-thirds vslne.
The new tax rate Is made neces-
sary by the recent action OF Cons ress
in doing away with the policy Of APP
propriating one-half of the money
needed to pay the expenses OF the
District from the Federal treasury.
and substituting In it's stead, the plan
Of appropriAting only 40 per cent, the
District paying the other so per cent
The half and half principle has been
in force in the District since the
organic act of 1873.
sI2.00o.0Oo NEEDED.
Last year the District raised more
than Ss,000.000 In taxes on real estate
and personal tangible property at the
rate OF u per cent. II IL these two
classes of taxation that will have to
bear the burden OF increased taxes.
In ALL the District raised about Sl0.-
600. 900 last year from taxes Of every
sort. This year to meet the extra
10 per cent increase In expenses in
running the District government,
about s12,00o.000 will have to be
raised, II is estimated.
The Appropriation items for the Dis
trict OF Columbia. which are included
in the District bill, the sundry civil
budget and the legislative appropria-
ttnn bill, for this year are about $cl.-
000,0 .....'
II Is doubtful say some District Of
ficials. IL the appropriation bills for
the next few years will fall much be-
low this mark. as much money is
needed to carry on the street repair
work and the building of public
schools. Both these items are about
three years behind, due mostly to war
conditions.
In fixing the tax rate. the Com
missioners will have to take into
consideration the amount Of tayes
available and the amount of money
they will ask to be appropriated by
Congress, and until the school and
road building programs have been
completed, il is believed that the rate
fixed by the Commissioners will stand.
1t is believed, that after the building
program has been caught up with.
the Commissioners will lower the
go as low as the old rate of " per
cent.
ID. c. MUST FAY MORE.
npr loa
trict collected 1893. .354 on land and
buildings In the District which was
assessed at S426. 800. $40. In addition
to this more than $4,000. 900 was rails
ed by levy Of tangible and intang'-
bic property. including the gross
earnings tax on banks. railroads, tel
ephone and gas companies.
The District also collected about
$1,000 900 from miscellaneous items.
such as permits and licenses. or tho
more than $4,000. 900 collected on
tangible and intangible property dur
ing the year. about 1880. .000--the tax
on tangible personal property--csn
be raised from ~ per cent to per
cent.
II the new tax rate is fixed at 81 or
2 per cent. it will mean that owners
of houses in the District will have to
pay one-third more taxes than they
have been paying. In the case of
house valued at $4,000, the tax will
be raised from $50 to $50. In several
cases-mostly the large office build
ings in the city-where the property
is valued at more than a million dol
lars, the tax rate will mean an in
crease of from $4,000 to $4,000 a year.
In business properties valued at hun
dreds OF thousands of dollars in
Washington the tax will be increased
hundreds of dollars.
william p. Richards. assessor OF
the District, has completed his figures
for the basis of taxation, and has
submitted them to the Commits
sioners. The Commissioners are now
waiting upon Auditor Daniel J.
Donovan for his figures. and when
he submits them the Commissioners
will be ready to act. Auditor Dono-
van has been held up for several
days working out the details of
the clerks retirement law, on the
conference of which he represents
the District COMMISSIONER.