New Britain herald., 1928-12-11

| item sl"la.134 thc school dc partmen' appropriation makes T total appropriation for school department purposes of S1,.
 54Sl59, or iS%5 per cent of the ! whole
 The glst uf the discrepancy is that the mayor includes all the money that is spent on capital account aS going 10 maintain the schools This : is his privilege and the rr,ylleE" of anyone else wishing to figure that way But lt ia not so figured lu other cities and IS not so figured in con- mon business affairs.
 Suppose somebody buys an auto | mobile from the mayor for in stance, doing so on time payments. Would 'h" payments on tn" notes and interest on then, be credited 10 the cost of operating th" autouo- i bile ?
 | Or suppose a man buys 2 house. through Q mortgage His monthly payments 10 Hmortize the cost of ihe structure probably would exceed what he would have 10 pay as rent. In such case. could h" claim that the monthly payment represented the cost of maintaining the Rouso We put this question 10 !. C. Moody, head of tte Moody Srcrc- tariaI school:
 l. il proper business practice to includ" expenditures for cap-
 ital account as part of the cost of operation?
 Mr. Noody's. answer, inAtan- taneousIy and conclusive, was No; don't think SO"
 To bc sure of his ground, Mr. Moody looked up the matter in th" ! books. using acknowledged author- ! ties. Having done so, he reported:
 find if is th" practic" not i to include such charges under 1 cost of operation. but to inclul" 1 them under other headings It Is not th" practice 10 lnclnI" | capital charges as part of main
 trnanc". Of course, in tn" last
 analysis all charges come from the same source but it iS not
 the practice 10 mix maintenance
 with capital outlays.
 Having already heard from thr mayor We put q similar question before Superintendent of Schools Holmes. Mir. Holmes said in sub stance that 10 include capital outlays as part Of the costs ot maintaining; schools is not usual throughout th, country. The cutornary method. he declared, is 10 regard maintenance costs as those including ianttor, ad minstration, salaries etc. This i> the usual system all over the roun- try" he added.
 All of which may uni rou>jucs the mayor; in fact. wr don't thuh it will, But we. iihe.th" mayor. arc "rontcni 10 r,st any qu"e'io6 on thr intelligence of the prH,jjr."
 .>s matter of f9c;, t0~ .oh,r ii
 the whole business lies in in, amoun, of tax money coil"ct'd. ]
 the taN total i~ redurrd the pcr
 rru'ago that fine schools cost t( maintain and also the percentage c
 capital outlay for n'A ~D'Hoots W,I
 he increased; if ih" 'a> total i7 n creasrd-3ud it must l." remember 'cJ inc tax levy is still lpM in N,it
 city thon the percentages lo
 school naj,dcnauce and capita , outlay js automatically reduced I
 the tax ra'c wrr". say. 70 mH-. th,
 present school percentages would b'
 reduced.
 , As to tbr jjinjnatIon og rortahi, 
 schools and part-'im" rlaS~ra thnr can br no disagreement. Everyone i
 trying to st that 1ouo. and NC hop | enough nou', HHI l." arprowiat", hy in. cltn to aclic,r 'hi+ ruI
 In tho cIaorjI ro amrh tn . mayor rrrts w' hloJ,I him con : siJrrabl" croJit for bg}ug hroueb , out murh information that ot}t,r 5 wis" might not l.alr errn la, light , He do'su't romneul It. for this; bil . p't1aps Hr was f"o urf,u jmu-r~" , m fine etatistj,s to .e,. th" kin : words. 1.c' IFS r.p'll. therefor, ttat there arr no harl uuliuG+ Tb : mator ha7 put on q enoI show m1dr au issu" interesting. and ha
 added to th" sum total or ciTi . knowledge Roth slI's r,uuot vi ! in nIrb H contest aud r "y. pu'or ; tuulto that th" 1nayrr vJs on fll
 losing side, although M prl. r~t9u , h" is still fighting aud N"nt =I'- n 5 pntll the contractors halr nnIslle , the job.