Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-07
Kate by Mail-Payabls in Advance.
Maryland and virIinia.
A vitality Important Function.

III iIdIiliuS inc blStFlcl eSl1iIidtts iot
1922. There is no other municipal
function so vitality important in its
hearing upon the Districts welfare as
this labor of the Commissioners. The
law gives them the power of initiative
in starting the appropriative legisla-
tive machinery which grinds out and
distributes the annual funds for the
maintenance and development Of the
nations city.
Their function is to spread before
the Districts legislature, Congress. the
genuine municipal needs of the CAPT
tai. and to estimate and to urge the
appropriation in detail of the money
required to satisfy these needs.
How large ought the estimates to
be to meet the municipal needs Of
1912? How large under the law
can they be: How large an expendi-
ture proposal can the District afford?
Wartime neglect of Washington's
municipal needs in respect to schools
and public library. water supply.
streets. sewers, police and fire depart
ments. etc. etc. and in respect to alb
solutely essential. wage increases all
along the line has caused an appalling
accumulation of unmet municipal
needs, requiring millions to clean the
slate Of these obligations Of the past.
Over eight million dollars OF these
neglected obligations are represented
by the four or five millions of so-called
District surplus Of unexpended local
taxes. collected by authority Of the
half-and-half law, and intended by the
law to be expended with an equal
amount from the national Treasury
to satisfy these very unmet municipal
needs which we are now called upon
to meet.
II. however. these eight or nine mil
lions (of which the Districts half was
collected and put in the Treasury had
been expended by the Districts legis-
lature in the wartime to meet the
war-time's municipal needs the latter
would not perhaps have been salts
fled in full. Not only in Washington.
but in most American cities, munich.
pal needs were neglected during the
years when the single thought of pa.
triotic Americans everywhere was to
give without limit money as well as
lives to preserve the republic and to
win the war.
Almost everywhere extraordinarily
large city appropriations are today re-
quired with temporarily increased city
taxes to meet these neglected mu-
nicipal obligations.
The wisely liberal District appro.
priations enacted last year made a
start in remedying wartime munich
pal neglects. The good work must
be continued on an even broader scale
this year.
The departments Of the municipal
government have been submitting to
the Commissioners their separate es.
Inmates. The school estimates simply
for adequate housing and equitable
compensation constitute by far the
largest single item of current main
tenance. but there are others, whose
needs total millions. One may guess
that these separate estimates would
aggregate in excess Of thirty mil.
lions.
The Commissioners cannot and will
not estimate for a thirty-million ap.
preparation. Congress will not appro.
pirate that sum. The District tax.
payers cannot afford so large a single
appropriation whether they contribute
on 60-4o, or 55-45, or a $3.50 basis.
For how large sum can the Com
missioners estimate? The law limit.
ing the Commissioners estimates to
twice the amount Of prospective tax
revenue is untouched by last sessions
legislation. 1t should, Of course, be
repealed at the first opportunity.
What limitation does it impose while
still in force upon the Commissioners
today?
II is necessary to ascertain what
the District revenue available for
1922 will probably be.
1t is figured that on the assessments
for 1922 the taxes collected for that
year at the $3.50 rate would amount
to about eleven and one-third millions,
enabling the Commissioners on this
item alone and at the minimum tax
rate to estimate total Of about TWEEN.
ty.two and two-thirds millions. II
instead Of the basic or minimum tax
rate Of $3.50. the maximum Of 81, or
this years tentative rate Of $1.95 were
fixed for 1922 under the sliding
scale arrangement over thirteen and
one-half millions Of taxrevenue would
be in sight and the Commissioners
could estimate over twenty-seven mil
lions.
Moreover. there are other items Of
tax-money available as revenue in
1922 than the taxes actually COL
lected in that year. II. for instance,
more money should be collected in
taxes for 1920-21 at the s1.95 rate than
will be necessary to pay the Districts
so per cent Of the appropriations for
that year. the surplus Increased by
two-thirds through addition Of the gov
ernment's 40 per cent contribution
expended in 1922.
On the same equitable principle
the unappropriated tax SURPRISES of
past years under the halfand-ha law
are available lawfully and equitahly
doubled by the nation) as District