Evening star., 1935-12-04
Fiscal Equity Campaign.

Fiscal Equity Campaign.
The Special Committee on Taxation at
the District Building has followed
wise course in recommending to the
Commissioners that the basic question
of how much it is advisable to spend
on improvements during the next ten
Years should be determined first as
Aaatter of policy, before proposing new
taxes to be borne by the people OF the
District.
There is another basic question, how
ever, of equal Importance, to be conSfd-
cred, and that is how will the Federal
partner in the upkeep and development
of the Nations Capital share in meeting
these future requirements? The Com
missioners have indicated recently that
they are not unmindful Of the impor-
tance of the fiscal relations issue in the
present situation, because, in submit
ting their estimates for next year to
the Budget Bureau, they have urged
that Uncle Sam return to more
equitable payment toward the cityS up
keep by increasing the Federal lump
sum for next year to $8,3l7,5O0 For
the current year the Federal payment
is only $5,700,OOO.
The data in the preliminary report OF
the Tax Committee show how the eX-
penditures for maintaining the city have
mounted during the past sixteen years.
Maintenance and operating expenses, for
example, have climbed from $l7,378,359
in 1920 to $35, 5,641 GIT for the fiscal year
1886. This is not the whole story, how
ever. The picture of that sixteen-year
period is far from complete unless it Is
pointed out also that, while the totals
have increased SO greatly since 1920,
the all-powerful Federal partner in the
task of maintaining the Capital City has
been gradually whiting down its share
of the cost.
In 1920 the total of District appropria-
tions, for maintenance and capital out
lay, was $50, ,129 ,239, toward which the
Federal payment was 1888 ,256. With
a total appropriation for the current year
of SAL ,224,2o8, the Federal payment now
is down to $5,7OO,OOO. This widening dis
parity in the share of the burden being
borne in recent years by the local COM
munity as compared with the Federal
partner makes the question Of fiscal
relations an essential factor to be weighed
in any discussion looking to further
taxation of local residents.
Unless the inequities of the present
lump-Sum Federal payment are consld-
cred along with future revenue needs
there is danger that any new local taxes
proposed at this time may be used
only as means of further reducing the
Federal payment instead of providing
for needed public Improvements. Local
taxpayers need only to look back to 1882,
when bills to levy four new taxes on the
District passed the House, to find cause
for that fear. Those tax bills came as
part of a movement to cut the Federal
lump sum from So, 500 900 to $500, 600.
The Senate did not concur in the tax
bills, but the House in the ensuing appro-
priation bills has succeeded in reducing
the Federal payment even below the
amount discussed at that time.
There is cause for qualification. there
fore, in the announcement of Commis-
sioner Hazen that <he will give serious
thought to the problem of obtaining a
formula that will place the Federal
payment on more equitable basis, and
will for the Commissioners fight vigor-
ously for its acceptance by Congress.
If the District people had voting rep
resentation in Congress and the electoral
college, and were'thus possessed Of some
power to participate effectively in the
congressional legislation and appropria-
ton which decide finally and conclu-
sively these tax issues there would be
greater encouragement for the COM
munity to discover and express its
opinion or wish concerning the taxes
to be imposed upon it. AS it is, expert
ence has taught the community that if
it aSsents to some proposed new tax
burden as substitute for one that exists,
or with conditional concessions by the
Nation in reasonable compromise, it runs
the danger of having the new tax to
which it assents imposed by Congress
not as a substitute for an existing tax,
but as an additional tax burden or
stripped of the compromise concessions
by the Nation which are necessary to
make the new tax equitable.
The moral is, first, that the community
should go slowly in taking the initiative
in proposing or accepting new taxes even
with equitable conditions in the begin
ming attached, and, second, that some
measure of political equity must be
gained before full fiscal equity can be
won.
-e-a@~-S------
Homicide records s1iroect that for ner-