The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-05-26
CONSTRUCTION OF
 BUDGET COMES
 IN FOR CRITICISM

= | Building Notes, on page IS under State Tax Notes. Bonds are repeated , on page IT, Deficit Notes again on
 page 19, Redemption Notes on page 24, Sewer Notes on Page A. } If a taxpayer desires to find out ! how much has been appropriated for
 the repayment of the debt it is neces- | sary for him to carefulyl examine the
 Budget and pick out all of these var
 ious items.
 After the primary segregation was made as between operating expenses
 and plant investment a further SeSre-
 gation was made grouping operating texpenSeS under eleven general heads,
 which are approximately the same as those adopted by the United States Census Bureau.
 Fixing the Tax Rate The tax rate is arrived at by first
 ascertaining the total amount appro- priated and deducting from this to- | tai the amount of miscellaneous re- | ceipts which it is estimated will be received during the year. The bal l ance represents the amount which is | levied in taxes against property own CTS.
 | This is the usual form of arriving | at the tax rate, and it is readily seen | that the rate may be raised or low cred depending upon whether the es- | innate of miscellaneous revenues is high or low.
 | No provisions are contained in the | Bridgeport charter as to how the eS- | innate of miscellaneous revenues is to | be arrived at. In Pennsylvania cities, the estimate of miscellaneous revenues is required to be the aver age of the actual revenues collected for the prior five years This, to very large degree, StabilizeS this fea- | ture of budget making The revenue side of the Bridgeport budget is made up upon a cash basis | that is, the amounts included there | in represent what it is expected to | collect in actual cash during the year. The basis of financing should be the | revenues of the city instead of the | cash receipts, that is, if the Board of Appropriation and Taxation levfes a ! tax of $7,049, ,S52.20, it should take into it's budget ait least 97 per cent of this amount instead of only 93 per cent, as was done in the budget for 1921-22- If collections are poor, the uncollected balance may be borrow ed from the banks
 The taxes levied against property owners, to a very large extent, are
 better assets than the ordinary ac- counts receivable of a business man and can readily be taken down to the bank and pledged as collateral for loans.
 It would require a book to cover all the phases of budget making, and I will therefore conffne myself to pointing out particular matters con- nected with the Bridgeport budget which appear to require notice. The matter of including the esti- mated amount of cash on hand at the beginning of a fiscal year in the estimate of miscellaneous revenues, has, 1 understand, been discussed more than once by city officials. The cash on hand may legitfmately be in neous revenues to reduce taxation. but this has never been included in the Budget of Bridgeport because of the opposition to such a procedure on the part of the Auditor. The effect of the Budget is seen by reference to the statement showing the condition of the annual estimate of receipts and disbursements in an other part of this report The effect of excluding this cash balance from the Budget was to increase t9le tax rate and give to the Auditor a large cash working balance over which no control is exercised.
 Another item which may 1egii- mately be taken into consideration as a miscellaneous revenue is the unex- pended balances of appropriations under the heading of Deficiencies, be cause it has a particular application to that problem.
 In addition to the available cash and unexpended balances of appro- priations which are not taken into consideration in Bridgeport in mak- ing up the annual Budget and which have tended to increase the tax rate
  tant matters connected with the prep aration of this Budget which appear to require explanation.
 Experience has shown that it is never possible to collect the full amount of taxes levied against prop erty owners. There is always a loss in collection due to various causes, such as errors made tin the assess ment, but usually on account of the lax methods of collection
 Where the collection of ttSe taxes is vigorously prosecuted and Che as sess1nent is carefully made there should not be a, loss of more than two per cent of the total amount as- sessed- When making up the Budget this loss in taxes must be taken into
 In the Bridgeport Budget for 1919-2O, the exact amount required was assessed against the property owner and the unco1ectibIe portion was included as an appropriation item amounts included in the appropria- lions for that purpose were as fol- lows:
 Deficit Tax. Second District. S4,2o7.s7 s14s,6e77s
 In the fs2o-21 budget an addition al provision was made for the uncol- | leotfble taxes in the following man | ner:
 Instead of 1evying a tax to raise | the exact amount reQlreO- teN amounting to s6,sSo, ,247.74, was lev jed against taxpayers to produce S6,- | 561432.S6 difference to S41S,- l SASS. Appropriations for 'taS col l lection deficits'' were also made
 amounting to s11s,0oo.o0- These two
 measures to all intents and purposes | created a. reserve for uncollsctfble
 taxes amounting to S536, SASS, which i with the surplus shown in the budget
 of s27.017.56, brought. the reserve up | to $563, ,SS2.44.
 | The following table will present a | clearer explanation of this proce- | dure:
 Budget 19oO-1so1. | Total appropriations. s7,644, 215. 30. l Less miscellaneous revenues, loans
 and arrears, $1,109, ,S0O.0O.
 | Balance required from taxpayers, $6,5S4, ,415.30.
 Amount assessed against property owners, s6,es0, ,247.74.
 Excess, S445, ,S32.44.