Evening star., 1933-04-02
Congress and the District Bill.

Influential members Of Congress have
interpreted the Budget Bureaus drastic
proposals to curtail local expenditures
as presenting them with an opportunity
to reduce the Districts tax burden.
Tax reduction is desirable and, In the
light of the decreased earning power
of taxpayers, even necessary.
The first duty of Congress, IN con-
sidering the budget estimates, however,
is to prevent the hardships that will
result from q horizontal percentage cut
in local expenditures that cannot con-
ceivably be offset in its entirety by tax
reduction.
Elsewhere in The Stars columns to-
day there appears a special article ex-
planning in detail the nature Of some
of the special funds and expenditures
with which the House must deal In
considering the appropriation bill.
These points are to be borne IN
mind:
1. The water tax fund, made up ex-
clusively from the water taxes (Nater
rentS) paid by local property owners,
should be restored at least to the level
agreed upon by the conferees, CT else
there should be q minimum cut OF
twenty-five per cent in water rates.
Water rates could be cut fifty per cent,
and still the budget recommendations
~ GlIph
a surplus only means greater unem-
ployment-the boarding of money by
taking it out of useful circulation, de-
priving it of the opportunity to benefit
either national or local taxpayers.
2 The gasoline tax fund should be
restored to the level agreed upon by
the conferees on the last District bill,
permitting useful employment on neces-
sary street work, or else the gasoline
tax should be cut by at least one-half.
The Federal Government makes no
contribution to the gasoline tax. Saw
ing it as a surplus benefits nobody and
deprives men of work at time when
hundreds of millions are being spent
to give men work.
8. The tax rates on intangibles should
be reduced, and the Commissioners
should have restored to them the power
to reduce the real estate tax rate to
yield only that amount Of revenue that
Congress chooses to appropriate.
But wise consideration of the items
agreed upon by the conferees In their
consideration of the last District bill
the lump sum, and not these items,
having accounted for the bills failure
will restore them to the District bill.
Even If restored in whole, the resulting
surplus will permit Of tax reduction.
If they are not restored. there will be
additional destitution and suffering by
men and women who have the right to
earn an honest living. The city's nor
NAL functions as a municipality will be
seriously impaired. And nothing of
benefit will have been accomplished for
anybody.
In relief from the burden Of local
real estate taxation, it is to be remem-
bered that WaShington's relatively low
tax rate is coupled with an assessment
standard that probably remains the
only one in the Nation that has not
been reduced during this period of fall
ing prices. 1t is a rigorous standard,
preserved at unnecessarily heavy cost
to the taxpayers. Other cities are re-
ducing their tax rates or their assess
ments or both. In Washington neither
assessment standard nor tax rate has
been diminished.
In this connection 1t would be more
practical for Congress to leave the mat
ter Of tax rate reduction to the Com
missioners, who must act at the end of
the fiscal year on the basis both of the
appropriation demands and on last
minute estimates of anticipated revenue
availability. But Congress might ap-
propriately direct that the tax rate
shall be so fixed that no unnecessary
surplus of local revenues from general
taxation will be collected.