Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-24

erly anu the privileges IN the DIS
trict.
The sundry civil act of June 20.
1878 provided that
the Commissioners of the District
shall have power to assess and col
lect the taxes for the fiscal year 1879
upon the basis of their estimates sub
United to Congress, meaning neces-
sarily in connection with the pro-
visions of the organic act itself, to
the extent of so per cent of those
estimates, and no other power to levy
taHes was conferred.
Taxes were to be collected during
each fiscal year with which to meet
the Districts part of the expenses
for that year. Taxes. of course. could
not be levied to produce actually and
exactly this so per cent: the result
might be a surplus or a deficit.
Whether in fact a large
surplus or deficit resulted in any
one year could have no bearing on
the construction of a statute which
authorized taxation only to the ex-
tent of SO per cent of a specified
amount"
Districts Contentious Supported.
Every vital contention of the Dis
trict concerning the construction of
support
in these words of Controller Downey's
decision.
The only Distr' of Columbia taxa
tion authorized nd directed by law
is that given to the Commissioners
to raise one-half of the amount of
District appropriations previously
made by Congress. If the law is fol-
lowed there is no possibility of a sur
plus of District money, unmatched by
United States dollars. Indeed, the lat
ter are under the law put up first.
But In practice Congress has repeat
eddy collected more In District taxes
than it has matched, either before or
after the levy, and has expended this
surplus without duplication in vio-
lation of the law. The account of such
expenditures should be stated and the
amount found in equity to be due the
District should be credited to It.
In the relations which existed be-
tween nation and capital. the nation
all powerful, with deSpotic control
of all District assets, and the District
impotent, voiceless, negligible, any
failure of the nation to meet the self
imposed obligation of the organic act,
while that law was permitted to re-
main unamended among the statutes,
was a violation of law and equity
raising an equitable credit in favor
OF the District, which it is the avowed
purpose of this inquiry to ascertain
and readjust.
(The District auditors figures show
in detail violations of the half and
half principle since 1873, aggregating
over four million dollars, or about
two millions outside of the sums in
volved in reputation by the nation
- rH
street extension.)
ACCOUNTS AND EQUITIES OF THE
PERIOD BETWEEN 1874 AND 1873.
l. All District expenditures between
1874 and 1873 whether met tempo
rarily and tentatively by % local
taxation, or (2) by unconditional ap-
preparations from the. Treasury, or
CD by Treasury appropriations to be
treated later as part of the proper
tional contribution of the United
States toward capital maintenance, or
% to be reimbursed by the District
to the Treasury are to be restated
and readjusted on the half and half
principle.
When the fffty-ffty ratio became
the law in 1873 1t was inserted retro
actively in the blank to be filled Gas
1t were) in the law of 1873 applying
to all expenses of the District within
this period, including interest on the
funded debt (21 Controllers Decisions
39S-400-401, December, 1910.
Controller Downey's decision. amply
ing the half and half principle to the
funded debt interest expense between
1874 and 1878 is so worded as by clear
implication to apply to all District
expenses within the same period
The 1874 declaration Of proportion
ate contribution by the nation on a
ratio to be afterwards fixed, applied
to all expenses of the District, in
Guiding interest and sinking fund
payments on the funded debt, and not
to the extent only of interest and
sinking fund payments on the funded
debt. Controller Downey's vivid de-
scrfption of chaotic conditions in the
Districts financial affairs between
1874 and 1873 covers all expenditures
in that period and not merely ex-
penditures in connection with the
funded debt. The same reasoning
which caused the latter expense to be
readjusted on the fifty per cent basis,
though in respect to the two items in
question full reimbursement by the
District had been directed compels by
clear and direct implication a read
justment on the fifty per cent basis
of the school and Jail expenses of that
period, of which full reimbursement
was directed by the original acts, and
which were not long ago fully reim-
bursed.
What Restatement Would Show.
When the accounts of 1874-7S have
been restated and balanced, whatever
the District has paid more than one
half of the aggregate expenditures
should be entered as an additional
District credit in the Treasury &C
count. II restatement of the account
shows that the United States has paid
more than one-half of the aggregate
expenditure, this excess payment
should be entered as a debit of the
District in the Treasury account.
Our figures show a balance due the
District of several million dollars as
a result of this restatement of ac-
count.
2. If, however, there is not to be
this general restatement of account
for this period and the items are to
be considered separately, then such
items, for example. as those for
schools and for completion of the Jail,
which were repaid in full by the tax
payers of 1890, should be repaid
one-half to the District, since the
principle applied by Controller Dow
neys decisions to the interest, etc,
on the. funded debt applies eQuitably
and consistently to such other Dis
trict expenses as those of schools
and of all jail construction. One-half
of these items should be entered as an
additional credit of the District in
the Treasury account.
S.,All the exactions from taxpay-