Evening star., 1937-06-25

mouse NndHu Gec1ded upon IN
creased realty leuy and business
privilege tar as principal rerenue
rdiserS.
BY !. A. OIEARY.
The 1888 District appropriation bill,
reduced to s45el5,oOO by the con-
ferees, will be pushed through its final
stages early next week, while the Sem
ate District Committe figures out the
best way of raising about S7,000.000 in
new taxes to meet the local COM
munitys share Of the outlay.
When House and Senate managers
gathered in conference yesterday, the
bill carried Senate amendments that
brought its total up to S46.600.000 In
desire to tighten the new tax burden
of about $500 900 that would have
been necessary to meet that total the
eonferees co-operated in shaving down
many of the Senate increases. When
they finished the job yesterday after
noon more than 5000 600 had been de-
Quoted.
New Bridge Dropped.
The largest cut was the dropping of
1925 900 inserted by the Senate to
start new Pennsylvania avenue
bridge, southeast. which would have
cost s2oO0OOO when completed The
the present bridge, and this was cut
to $4,000.
Numerous small reductions were
made in Senate increases throughout
the municipal service, mostly for per-
sonnel and maintenance for an ag-
eregate saving Of nearly $500, 600 more
The House group also succeeded in
transferring the cost OF trees and
parkings-s126,60 ,600-from the city's
general revenue fund to the separate
Gas tax fund. which heretofore has
been used only for highway and bridge
construction. 1t is in the general
fund that the impending deficit will
occur.
Although estimates vary widely as
10 the probable yield of the seven point
tax program as passed by the House,
1t is believed the Senate will be able
to modify the House revenue bill and
still raise enough to meet the appro-
priaton bill as finally agreed upon.
A number of changes in the House tax
schedules are expected to be presented
10 Chairman Kings District Committee
next week.
Hospital Transfer Accepted.
Transfer of public hospitals and
medical charities from the Board of
Public Welfare to the Health Depart
ment was accepted by the conferees.
This originally was proposed by the
House Subcommittee, knocked out on
point Of order in the House, and re-
stored to the bill by the Senate.
Two other House reorganizat ton pro-
posals, however, are out. One would
have switched control of about is
Fairgrounds from the Fairgrounds De-
partment to the Community Center
Office. The other would have trans
ferred the Business License Bureau
from the assessor to the Weights and
Measures Office.
The hospital change gives the
Health Department control over Gal
linger, the tuberculosis Sanatoria, and
the care of INDECENT patients under
contract with Emergency, Casualty
and Childrens Hospitals, and the
Washington Home for Incurables.
The Senate was successful in it's
move to restore the annual and sick
leave Of several thousand per diem
employees, which have been taken
away under the House bill
Teacher Clerical Limit Withdrawn.
The Senate also kept out of the
bill the House rider which would have
restricted the amount of clerical work
school teachers could perform, which
was source of controversy at the
Senate hearings.
The House succeeded in retaining
another rider providing that salaries
Of school librarians shall not exceed,
on the average, the pay for similar
work in the Public Library system.
The House also won its fight for
a ban on pay increases resulting from
reallocation of positions under the
classification act, but compromised by
exempting positions below $4,000, in
stead Of the original limit of $4,000.
The House item to enable the in
kurance department to employ fire
insurance rate expert was restored.
This position was advocated by the
House following testimony at the
hearings that fire insurance rates here
are too high In relation to fire losses.
The Senate lost its amendment
which would have apportioned the
expenses of the higher courts between
the Federal and District governments
according to the percentage of Federal
and local litigation they handle. The
amendment would have required the
Federal Government to put up 40
per cent of the expenses of the United
States District Court and 10 per cent
Of the cost of running the Court of
Appeals.
Agreement Comes Quickly.
With Representative Ross Collins Of
Mississippi heading the House group
and Senator Thomas of Oklahoma in
charge for the Senate, the conference
went off smoothly and probably estab-
iished record for prompt agreement
Only one day of deliberation was
necessary This was due largely to
the absence of any dispute this year
over the amount of the Federal share,
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