Evening star., 1924-08-02
Special Displ tch 10 The Star.

Special Dispatch 10 The Star.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. August .
Universal adoption of the city mana
city would be able to declare 'divi-
dend" by refunding taxes, as the
city council of Knoxville did this
week, when 10 per cent of the taxes
levied for the current year was re-
funded to the people.
The possibility of such an actual
refund would depend entirely on the
peculiar situation in each city, for
no two cities have the same history,
the same traditions. the same munich
pal habits. Indeed, hardly two can
agree upon the question of what is
and what is not within the proper
sphere of municipal governmental
activity, but | think it is true that
any city that now has a government
in which partisan politics is a con-
trolling factor. or even considerable
factor, may, by the adoption of the
city manager form of government,
soon enable itself to pay "dividends'
from the economies made possible by
for political methods in the everyday
conduct of it's affairs.
In Knoxville the politicians of both
parties, sometimes tandem and some
times abreast. governed the city for
years very much as do politicians
everywhere. They looked upon pub
lie employment as public office" and
chose for the city officials men who
would obey the machine as in other
places. The machine here was BIZ
h,,< "a hold tha in, y1a
and elected its men by talking tariff
when garbage was the real issue, by
ringing in the good old party shib-
boleths for public delectation, while
the spoils were more or less fairly
divided behind the scenes.
Waste Brings Revolt.
The waste and the inefffciency
brought about revolt and the city man
ager form of government was adopted
and a non-partisan, not bipartisan.
council was elected forthwith. The
new government began to. think in
terms of business instead of politics.
1t had nothing upon which to base
it's estimates but the experience or the
previous year. in which the old gov
ernment had incurred a deficit of a
million dollars. 1t cut the budget a
lf-million dollars and 1T fixed tax
rate which would balance the reduced
appropriations.
"A
apparent that revenues were coming
in better than the year before, and
it was equally apparent that ALI the
budget appropriations would not be
needed. despite the extension of
municipal activity and on scale
never before known in the city. A
new system of accounting produced
daily report showing the exact
status of the city's accounts and the
changes from day to day. A rapidly
mounting revenue surplus was re-
>ealed. The council, a body Of busi-
ness men, said:
Let us take this surplus, or at
least half of what it will be at the
end of the fiscal year, and give it
back to the people in the shape of a
10 per cent refund of their taxes.
Then we will not be tempted to eX-
travagance this year nor to the es-
tablishment of an unduly low tax
rate next year
Money Back to People.
That was done and Knoxville had
declared its dividend" Last year,
under political control, the tax rate
actually levied was 81 per cent too
low to meet the actual expenditures.
This year the tax rate and other rev.
enues produced too much money and
the business government paid it back to
the people.
In another city perhaps the people
may have preferred the "dividend' in
the form of a new park (knoxville
got its new park also during the nine
months) Or some other new municipal