Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-12
Review of District Finances
Indicates Current Year Sur.
plus OF $1,8o0,000.
FINAL DECISION AWAITS
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
Commissioner Reichelderfer Elk.
poets to Retain $1.70 Rate on
Present Outlook.

The 10-cent increase in the tax rate
on which the Commissioners predicated
their $4S,oo0,0oO budget for 1882 will
not be necessary, it was disclosed
yesterday, as the Budget Bureau COM
pleted the first week of hearings ON
the estimates for the next fiscal year.
The necessity for the higher tax
levy, it was said, has been obviated by
recapitulation of finances which puts
the District in a different light than
that pictured when the 1882 estimates
were framed Instead of being de-
pendent almost entirely on receipts
from taxes and other sources at the
end of this fiscal year 1t has been found
that the District actually will have a
surplus of about $l,800,000.
Will Continue S1.7O Levy.
The proposed 10-cent raise in the tax
rate would have yielded 81, 300 900 in
additional revenue. The prospective
surplus, therefore, will be ABOUT $780,
600 in excess of this amount, making
it possible, it was declared, to continue
the existing S1.70 levy.
Commissioner Luther H. Reichel-
derfer, who has supervision over the
financial departments of the District,
admitted that the 1882 budget as 1t now
stands can be financed on the $1.70
tax rate, although it was. predicated
on $1.80 levy.
Several months ago it was thought
$3.50 rate might be necessary next
year." said DR.. Reichelderfer. But the
estimates of receipts and expenditures
have changed since that time And
unless some extraordinary expenses de-
velop and Congress increases the
budget above the amount now calle1
for in the estimates, 1t probably viii
not be necessary to raise the tax rate
next year."
Rate Fixed Next Year.
Commissioner Reichelderfer pointed
out, however, that the tax levy for
| 1892 will not be fixed until next Sum-
mer. BY that time the Commissioners
| will know definitely how much money
will have to be raised by taxation to
support the appropriations made by
Congress for the coming fiscal year.
In the meantime, DR.. Reichelderter
explained the special subcommittee OF
the House appointed to study the prob
lem of fiscal relations between the Fed
eral and District Governments may
recommend a change in the policy OF
fiscal relations which might have some
! effect on the tax levy. At any rate,
he made it clear that the budget which
the Commissioners sent to the Budget
! Bureau in July, contemplating lO-
cent increase in the rate. can be sdp-
ported on $1.70 on the basis of latest
calculations.
Auditor Prepares Report.
Mai. Daniel j. Donovan, District
auditor and budget officer, is now COM
pleting a statement showing the pro-
spectIve condition of the municipal
treasury at the beginning Of the 1892
fiscal year, and revealing the existence
of the 81 100000 surplus, which had
not been taken. into account at the
time the Commissioners framed the
estimates for the coming year, and re-
suited in the announcement that a
$180 tax levy was in prospect. The
statement is expected to be made public
this week
Aside from ,$1s0 tax rate, the 1882
budget also was predicated on con-
tribution of $10,000,000 by the Federal
Government-an increase of 81 100000
above the amount appropriated from
1925 to 1929, and 100000 more than
Congress allowed in the current fiscal
year Budget officials have indicated
during the hearings, however, that they
likely will not sanction Federal con-
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