New-York tribune., 1922-11-01
Barely Below Debt Limit,
but Hylan, Craig and
Enright Provide Fat
Jobs for Favorite $
Mayor Puts Blame
On Mandatory Acts
Final Figure Is s3,1l4,-
547 Above Last Year,
Despite 8 Reductions .

Barely an hour and half before
/ the expiration Of the time fixed by
law, the Board Of Estimate last night
completed its work Of trimming the
proposed budget for 1923 to bring It
within tho constitutional debt limit
and adopted as the anal figure for the
city's expenditures for the coming
year $353,851,s12.67. This total is
greater than the appropriation for
1929 by $s,114,s4714.
IN announcing the fgs...es for the
new budget Mayor iIy.an declared
again that mandatory legislation at
albany was responsible for the In
creased cost OF running the city gov
ernment. 1t was admitted, however, by
Comptroller Craig that at least 25 uer
cent Of the new Jobs created in various
city departments had been retained in
the final budget. Foremost among these
IS an assistant for the Mayor, at 50 1000
year. Comptroller Craig succeeded
In retaining his three additional depu.
ties, at $4,000 year, and Commissioner
,Ehright also managed to hold on to
his appropriation for four new deputy
chief inspectors.
Barely Below the Limit =
No exact figures on departmental al
iowances We're available last night nor
were the members of the Board of
5ssx1mate able to say in just what items
Me reductions were made which
2. p.rougnt the budget total down from
the proposed figure Of 1851, ,000, 900,
which was approximately $4,000, 900
over the dcot limit. Mayor Hvlan said
simply that reductions had been made
"all along the line" and that If there
We're any increases they we're all
chargeable to mandatory legislation.
In fact, he declared, if it had not been
for the mandatory legislation the new
budget would have been lower than
that for last year.
The Mayor was particularly indefinite
IS TO just what reductions the Board Of
Estlmate had succeeded in MAKING. and
wren ne was asked 5spe ecifically ahuslt
incenaed. ss g.
How about the appropriation for an
assistant 70 the Mayor" he was asked.
lis that all you're worrying about?o
snapped the Mayor. "That's only SO 600
9 year. That doesn't make up The diff
ference amounting to millions. We cut
out all along the line. If it hadn't
been for mandatory legislation the new
budget would have been lower than last
year." %S 9
Pared Down $8,00O,0OO
Faced by the imperative necessity. Of
pairing at least s6,000,0OO from the bud
get before midnight the members Of
the board spent the entire day in
executive session dickering with de-
partment heads and borough officials.
all eager to hold the added allowances
which had been provided for them in
at 1920 p. m. the word was passed
that tho budget was complete, and
Mayor Hylan and the other members
filed into the Board of Estimate cham
ber.
The actual adoption Of the budget,
which was by unanimous vote, took
barely ten minutes, and consisted prin-
cipaliy Of the Mayors statement blam-
ing the increase on the bugbear of
mandatory legislation and Comptroller
Craig's analysis show ng that more
than half of the total was accounted
for by appropriations for maintaining
the school; system, county governments
within the city, debt service and pay
"a AShS VI ttfW ctoGc taAs A1IS statement
follows:
"of the total budget Of $s53,s51,-
812.67, more tnan one-half is required
for education, debt service, state tax
and county governments, as follows:
Education .................. $s3,ss5.4
Debt service. e................ SA936, ,641.83
state tax. 1886, ,623.67
County governments -. 10,622,634.62
Total. ..... :. .......e... .s1s1, ,s4s, $500
more than one-fourth Of the total
budget is required for the Police, Fire
and Street Cleaning derartri /,
welfare and support Of dependents"
"The actual increase in the ouoget
for 1928 over that of this year is !
So, ,114, ,347.14."
"The increase in the appropriations
for the Board of Education alone is
S5,606,334.55 over that of 1922 Had
it not been for; this increase the budget
for 1928 would have shown reduction
OF about $500 ,000.'
The budget is well within the con-
tcentinusd on page sIx)