The Washington times., 1937-01-28
EXTRA REVENUE
PROBE OPENS
FEB. Is
Members Want Time
to Study Various Plans
Now Before Them

Apparently determined not to
recommend any increase in prop
erty tax in the District, the House
District sub committee appointed
to find additional revenues for the
municipal government today set
February Is as the date for the
beginning Of hearings.
The pressure of other duties and
the desire of members to have
ample time to thoroughly digest
the contents Of the Jacobs report
were given as reasons for delay
ing the opening of the hearings
until that date.
At the informal meeting of the
subcommittee today, held for Or
ganization purposes, various po-
tential sources of additional rev.
enue were discussed, but beside
the fact that virtually all the
m bers declared themselves
firmly opposed to increasing prop
erty taxes there was little meet
ing of the minds.
All will Testify
It was decided that during the
course of the hearings each of the
three members of the presidents
fiscal relations committee will be
called to testify, as will Louis j.
Jacobs, wo directed the study and
the staff which helped him. The
District auditor, Daniel Donovan
also will be asked to give his views
on the matter and Representative
Ross Collins CD Of Mississippi,
chairman of the House District
Appropriations subcommittee, and
the members of that subcommit-
tee will be asked to sit in at the
hearings.
Representative Ambrose j. Ken
nedy CD of Maryland, chairman
Of the subcommittee which will
make the study, indicated that he
intends to expedite the hearings
as much as possible, announcing
that he will seek permission of the
House to allow his group to con-
tinue its hearings all day, even
when Congress is in session.
will Learn Deficit First
The subcommittee members
agreed that before any definite
action is taken by the group in
recommending legislation it will
be necessary to determine first
how much of deficit will face the
District after Congress completes
action on the District appropria-
tions bill. This pointed to the fact
that the members do not desire
to levy any more additional taxes
on the people of the District than
will be necessary to meet the pros
pective deficit.
Representative william Schultz
3D. of Indiana sought today to
impress the subcommittee mem
bers with the justice of what he
called the gross income tax"
which is now in effect in his
home State. Under that tax, he
said, everyone making a salary
of $1,000 or more year is
taxed $12 a year, and those re-
ceiving more than that are taxed
accordingly. He told the sub
committee members:
"The type of tax has worked
well in Indiana, and many
other States are showing quite
and interest in it. I think
1t is as just a tax as can be
levied, since you get the fellow
who ever before has contributed
to the maintenance Of his
Government"
Sales Tax Hint
One of the suggestions out
lined today by Mr.. Dirksen, who
emphasized that his ideas are
based on the supposition that ad-
ditional taxes will be needed, is
o sales tax.
Dlrksen explained that the 3
per cent sales tax in Illinois is pro
ducing approximately $50,000,000
a year.
He estimates that 2 per cent
sales tax, which he thinks would
be heavy enough here, would re-
turn to the District Golfers about
$2,500,000 a year. He arrived at
this by figuring the population of
the District at about 100000 per-
sons and comparing what that
number of persons would pay on
2 per cent basis with what the
100000 population of Illinois
pays on its 3 per cent basis.
The Illinois Congressman added:
"Of course, the sales tax here
could be written into legislation
SO as to return a much greater
or much smaller yield than
S2,5OO,OO0, according to whether
it included every article and
service, or whether its applica-
ton was limited. But I think,
applying it in a normal way, it
would yield that much"
He pointed out that in the
Jacobs report it was recommended
that the District tax system
should be diversified. so as to have
more kinds of taxes and not bur-
den certain sources too heavily.
He added that he agreed with that
theory, but favored keeping the
taxes as low as possible in all
fields.
If additional taxes must be
raised, he said, it appears that the
automobile registration tax could
be brought into line more with
that paid in the other States of
the country. According to the
Jacobs report, he related, 1t shows
that the present District registra-
l.. l.