Evening star., 1933-03-29
Continued From First Page.)

a national expenditure. To cut it down,
as the Budget Bureau proposes to cut
it down does not diminish by cent the
national expenditures. does not relieve
In the least the national taxpayer from
any part Of his heavy tax burden and
does not help in the slightest to bal
ance the Federal budget.
No Tax Reduction Promised.
None Of the purposes of the Presi-
dents economy program Is satisfied by
its application to the District appro-
priation bill. so far as the millions con-
tributed by the local taxpayers are con-
cerned, and it should not be applied at
all to them.
If a cut is made in the appropriations
Of the local tax money. the reason for
the cut should be that expenditures of
the local tax money have been extrav-
agant and wasteful, that the amount CT
tax money exacted from the local tax
payers to meet these excessive outlays
is too great and should be reduced. and
that local taxation would, as a result
of these cuts, be reduced.
But no reduction of local taxation Is
promised by the Budget Bureau cuts.
On the contrary, various schemes have
been discussed in Congress by which to
plaster the local taxpayers with addi-
tional taxation At the very time when q
larger number Of them than ever before
are unable to meet their tax bills.
The effect of the cuts proposed by
the Budget Bureau is to take several
millions-the estimated amount is some
thing over $4,000 900, not including the
revenues from beer taxation, which
may reach s3O0,OO0-of the local tax
payers money, unless local taxes are
cut, and to hoard them in the National
Treasury, where they can be used by no
body, either by the President to balance
the national budget or by the COM
munity for the promotion of commu-
nifty welfare.
The cuts proposed by the Budget
Bureau, If carried into effect, would
result in the discharge of men already
at work, the prevention of employment
giving and necessary public works. And
all of this great wiping out Of useful,
decently paid employment is being pro-
posed in bill which carries more than
million dollars for the care, at the rate
of about $3.50 week per family, OF those
who are unable to get work. More iron
ical still Is the fact that employment
creating and municipal al-benefiting jobs
are stricken from the District bill, while
vast schemes are set afloat in other leg
islation proposing the utilization Of idle
men at public expense in tree planting
and other forms of reforestation. If the
Budget Bureau recommendations are
carried into effect, the District will be
we'll represented in the camps Of the
unemployed tree planters.
Alternatives Presented.
The Budget Bureau has presented
Congress with the choice between two
alternatives. One is to pile up In the
Treasury an idle fund Of S9,200,0 900 Of
unspent local revenues. The other Is to
effect a reduction of local taxation In
the next fiscal year amounting In the
maximum to $9,200.000.
And there is a third alternative
presented by the Budget Bureau, but
which may be chosen by Congress
which is the appropriation of money
to be raised by local taxation on nee
essary community enterprises.
As the figures stand today, the esti-
mates are so framed that if the present
rate of taxation is continued and the
Budget recommendations enacted into
law as framed, the District would have
three idle surplus funds in the Treas
ury at the end Of the next fiscal year
as follows:
l. A surplus from general revenues
amounting to s6,200,000.
2. A surplus from gasoline tax rev.
enues amounting to $l,800,000.
3. A surplus Of water revenues
amounting to $1,2OO,oOo (even allow
ing for the proposed refund OF 10
per cent to those fortunate and
comfortably fixed taxpayers who
can pay their water taxes on time).
AS a matter of plain common sense.
these potential surplus re-enues should
either be appropriated on necessary
public work, or taxes should be so re-
duced that the revenues will not have
to be raised.
If local taxpayers were given the op-
portunity (Which so far is denied them)
to decide between spending the money
to be produced in the next fiscal year
by a continuation Of the present rate
Of taxation. or OF being given the bene-
fits of a reduction in taxation, they
would probably decide in favor Of tax
reduction.
Government salaries have been re-
duced Cor will be on April y by Is
per cent. Salaries of employees in all
branches Of local industries, as well as
the professions, have been reduced,
many of them as high as so per cent.
There is the greatest local army of
unemployed in the history of the city.
Taxes Hold Rents Up.
A few days ago the Department Of
Labor produced figures to show that
the cost Of living since 1928 has de-
creased by 81 per cent for Washing
ton as compared with % per cent for
the Nation at large. Local rents were
said to have decreased only per cent
as compared with national reduction
in rentals averaging "a per cent.
One reason why rents have been
| m q ipta aimed of q relatively HIGH level