Evening star., 1937-01-03
Rate by Mail-Paysble In Advance.
Control Made Complete.

If, as seems highly probable, the Budget
Bureau Is sending to Congress this week
q District budget that leaves amount OF
the Federal payment blank, local tax
payers are witnessing highly significant
development in Budget Bureau control OF
the municipal government.
Such control as the Budget Bureau
has exercised over the local budget in the
past was in the beginning justified by
the fxed ratio system of appropriations.
When, speaking generally. every dollar
appropriated for the District contained
forty cents of national revenue, there
was a logical and practical reason for
BUDGET Bureau control of the maximum
estimates Federal revenues were directly
concerned.
With abandonment Of the fixed ratio
system there was no longer any real
justification for such control. Neverthe-
less 1t remained and If anything. became
more strictly exercised. But the con-
trolling power was always based osten-
sibly on the Federal payment and was
concerned directly with the amount. IN
dollars and cents. that would be available
for expenditure from certain known
sources of revenue.
The Budget Bureau policy, in other
words, was to frame q local budget, not
on the basis of fiscal needs Of the Dis
trict, but on the amount of cash esti-
mated to be available for expenditure.
With one years exception the bureau
took the position with reference to the
Federal payment that it could not do
otherwise than to recommend the amount
appropriated by the preceding Congress.
The inconsistent and unfair exception
to the rule was to recommend q reduction
In the lump sum for the fiscal year 1880
that approximated the percentage reduc-
ton in the size of the total estimates.
II was an inconsistent and unfair recon-
mendation, as demonstrated in subse-
euent years by the Budget Bureaus fail
ure to recommend an increase in the
lump sum corresponding, proportionately.
to the increase in the total estimates
The significance in the reported action
this year of leaving out the amount Of
the Federal payment, presumably to be
supplied when the President recommends
the amount on the basis Of the fiscal
study of the past months, is that the
Budget Bureau is controlling not merely
the listing of these needs which the
Commissioners may be expected to
finance within an estimated amount of
revenue, but is controlling the submis-
sion of needs without any direct connec-
ton to the amount or the sources Of
revenue to be available for expenditure.
'. That means that Budget Bureau con-
troll over the municipal government and
municipal governmental policies is made
complete. And because of budget bureau
administrative methods, 1t means, In
effect, that control Of the local budget
and local policies is vested in one or two
subordinate officials in the Budget
Bureau, neither known to the public nor
responsive to the expressions Of COM
munity opinion.
The people Of the District hopefully
await the solution Of the fiscal relations
question to be proposed by the President,
as result Of the recent studies. But If
the solution is based on any attempt to
separate, In some manner. Federal and
local revenues and Federal and local re-
sponsibilities, the separation must be
complete. The control ever local esti-
mates and expenditures, now so strictly
exercised by the Budget Bureau, must in
some manner be vested with the local
taxpayers. The Federal Government
cannot in equity retain control and shed
financial responsibility which accom-
panies control.