Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-22
The Districts Surplus.

something RESEMBLING TIE llIlBeT VI
scorn seems to have been leveled at the
Commissioners because Of their failure
to contemplate. in advance of hearings
on the current District appropriation
bill, the expenditure of surplus funds
remaining to the credit of the District
In the Treasury. BY the end Of the next
fiscal year the surplus will have reached
about ten million dollars, and as five
million dollars represent safe and
desirable margin to be left in the
Treasury as required by the law of
1922, the balance of five million is
available for spending.
Commissioner Dougherty's letter to
the House subcommittee, however, writ
ten In explanation of the Commission
ers' inability to answer questions relat-
ing to the expenditure of this money
when the questions were asked, shows
clearly enough that there is not and
never has been any great problem in
discovering ways and means to spend
the money. The problems were how
much to spend safely and how to spend
1t wisely.
In 1922 Congress ordered the Dis
trict to be placed on a cash, or pay
as-you-go, basis by July, 1927. This
provision was part Of the five-year fis-
cal program on the 60-40 basis of
contribution which Congress enacted,
and which it has required the District
to carry out in every detail that i'm
posed additional burdens upon the Dis
trict, though it has itself indirectly
nullifed the 60-40 definite proportion
contribution, which was the only fea-
ture of the five-year fiscal program
which was justly favorable to the Dis
trict.
The Commissioners were directed to
raise annually and lay aside such sum
as would be necessary to put the Dis
trict on the pay-as-you-go basis in
1927, and they decided that by putting
aside six hundred thousand dollars an
nually for five years a desirable surplus
OF three million dollars would be &C.
cumulated. This balance, plus the lump
sum which becomes available at the be-
ginning Of each fiscal year, would enable
the District to meet the expenses of
new appropriations in advance of the
time that its own tax-raised revenue
would become available. The tax rates
were fixed accordingly. But at the end
Of the first four years the Commission
ers found that the surplus in hand was
nearly i've hundred thousand dollars
short of what it should have been. In
the fiscal year 1927. however, there was
an excess Of revenue credits over ap-
preparations and the surplus was
brought to s3,760,oo0. 1t had become
apparent, meanwhile, that although
three million dollars were contemplated
as q safe margin, or surplus, for a
budget Of thirty million, the budget
was nearing forty million dollars, and
that greater margin would be neces-
sary. The Commissioners now contend
that margin of five million dollars Is
desirable.
In the time since the fiscal year
1927 the surplus has Unexpectedly
grown. If it continued to enlarge at
the present rate, it would reach ten
million dollars by the end of the fiscal
year for which Congress now is appro-
priating. But sum Of more than a
million dollars is already accounted for In
supplemental estimates before Congress
and the Commissioners have already
suggested methods Of spending the re-
mainder.
Part Of the surplus is caused by re.
fusal Of the Budget Bureau and Con-
gress to appropriate it in accordance
with the recommendation of the Com
missioners and failure to appropriate
1t for other purposes.
The fact that the expenditure OF the
surplus was not taken into consider.
alton by the Commissioners earlier 1.
not nearly so important as the principle
which enters into the future expendi.
ture Of this money. Substantive law
never repealed, calls for Federal rev.
enues for Capital maintenance and de.
velopnent in definite and fixed proper.
ton to District revenue. The surplus
Of District revenues should be appro
priated as it was accumulated, and thu
Federal Government should add it
lawful forty per cent. Instead, how
ever. 1t is planned now merely to alb
sorb the surplus by appropriating it fol
projects in which the Federal contri
button will be nothing. Nearly two ant
Q half million dollars of this, it i
planned, will go for the purchase o
land for the municipal center, a projec
in which the Federal Government
should participate equally with the Dis
trict.
Spending the Districts surplus a
planned merely increases the District
share in the burden of maintaining ant
building the American Capital, with
resulting decrease in the share which
should be borne equitably by the Fed
eral Government.
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