Evening star., 1934-12-10
u. S. Morally Bound to Share
D. c. Cost Fairly, Says Hasen
Commissioner Cities Tas.Exempt Prop.
erty as One Element to Be Considered,
in address to Oldest Inhabitants.

Because OF the extraordinary in
terest in the subject, the full tert OF
a speech delipered by Commissioner
Hasep last Friday night on fiscal
relations at the annual banquet of
the Association OF Oldest Inhabi-
tants is printed beloip.
I am going to speak on a subject
which in my opinion Is not only of
outstanding importance, but of vital
concern, to the District of Columbia.
! refer to the question of fiscal rela-
tions between the United States and
the District of Columbia. This ques-
tion, which has been a matter of agi-
tation for a great many years, was
before the Commissioners and given
most serious consideration while they
were engaged in preparing the District
budget for the fiscal year 1886. In
that work the Commissioners were
confronted with the necessity of rails
ing additional revenue, either by an
increase in the tax rate or by recon-
mending a substantial increase in the
Federal contribution beyond the
amount now paid in order to provide
for a budget total that would supply
only absolutely minimum needs for
the ensuing fiscal year.
Problem of the Budget.
The several departments of the Dis
trict government and Federal agencies
expending moneys paid from local
appropriations submitted total esti-
mates for 1896 amounting to $50, ,70O,-
600. All of this amount represented,
not only in the judgment of the de-
partment heads, but in the judgment
of the Commissioners as we'll, sums re-
quired for the efficient administration
of the municipal government and for
necessary improvements. Notwith-
standing this, however, the Commits
sionerS. after conferences with the de-
partment heads, reduced their amounts
by over eight and one-half million
dollars.
The budget total approved by the
Commissioners and forwarded to the
Budget Bureau amounted to slightly
over s44,000,000. This budget could
not be paid from local taxes by con-
tinuing the present tax rate of s1.50
and the Federal contribution Of only
$5,700,000.
No Tax Increase Justified.
The Commissioners felt that the
existing tax rate should not be in
creased. believing that this rate when
applied to the assessed valuation of
property made by the assessor repre-
sents fair and reasonable tax to be
paid by owners of real estate. The
Commissioners decided, therefore,
that they would recommend a larger
Federal contribution than the S5,700.-
600 now paid. They assumed that
the appropriations made over a num-
Der of years offered fair criterion
of what the United States might con-
tribute as its share towards District
expenses. They decided upon an aver
age over the past 10 years, and in this
way arrived at the sum of little more
than eight million three hundred
thousand dollars.
1t was believed the average men
TONED, founded on composite opin-
ions and ideas, gave fairly solid and
iCdoolldoiC VI d1
equitable contribution by the Federal
Government towards appropriation re-
quirements in the fiscal year 1896.
A Recurring Controversy.
This subject of fiscal relations
arises each year not only while the
Commissioners are preparing their an
nual budget, but during the hearings
on that budget before the committees
in Congress AS far back as a hun
dred years ago. in 1885, we find that
this matter of fiscal relations between
the United States and the District of
Columbia was the subject of conten-
ton on the part of local residents and
Congress
In report of a Senate committee
in the twenty-third Congress, dated
February 2, 1885, the committee hav-
ing before 1t memorials of the cor
porate authorities of the cities of
Washington and Georgetown dealing
with the pecuniary embarrassments
of the city and the repeated appeals
which had heretofore been made to
the justice and liberalty of Congress,
it Is stated that plan Of the city was
formed by the public authorities, the
dimensions Of the streets determined
by them without reference to the in
habitants or regard to their particular
interest or convenience, and that such
plan was calculated for the magnif1-
cent Capital of a great Nation, but
oppressive from its very dimensions
and arrangements to the inhabitants
If its execution to any considerable
extent was to be thrown upon them,
and that no people who anticipated
the execution and subsequent support
of it out of their own funds would
ever have dreamed of forming such
plan.
Forty Years of Half and Half.
For more than 40 years the half
and half plan of meeting District
appropriations was carried out with
but slight variations, the last ap-
preparation to which it applied being
that for the fiscal year ended June