Evening star., 1938-11-20
unearned income. (These people
will also pay the sales taxi"

unearned income. (These people
will also pay the sales taxi"
Members of Advisory Group.
Members of the Advisory Commit
tee, in addition to Maj. Donovan,
are the following District officials:
Corporation Counsel Elwood H. Seal,
Assessor Fred D. Allen. j. V. Morgan
of the Board of Tax Appeals, Rich
mond B. Keech, vice chairman OF the
Public Utilities Commission. and the
following public representatives:
Robert V. Fleming, l.. A. Carruthers,
John Locher, Charles M. Thomas
and Mrs. Ernest Field Parkinson.
Some weeks ago, officials OF the
congressional joint committee and
the advisory group let it be known
something in the nature OF q
trial balloon they were con-
sidering a possible combination OF
a restricted income tax, which would
duck the question of doubtful appli-
cation to Federal salaries, with a
restricted sales tax as solution OF
the Districts financial problem. The
experts and the members OF the
official and the advisory commit
tees have not yet noted on the pro-
posed plan-so far as is known
but the bare fact that this schedule
has been offered for consideration
at the forthcoming public hearings
announced for the first time-in-
dicated to observers that the COM
mittee is seriously considering the
announced plan as its final recon-
mendation.
Meeting Set for Tuesday.
During the past week the advis-
ory committee gave increased atten-
ton to the combination income tax
retail sales tax plan when it revealed
it had called meeting of the group
to consider application of the cor
poration income tax side of the
proposed program to Washington's
four major utilities, the Potomac
Electric Power Co.. the Washington
Gas Light Co., the Chesapeake &
Potomac Telephone Co, and the
Capital Transit Co. SpoAesmen for
these groups are invited to appear
before the advisory committee and
the congressional experts Tuesday
afternoon.
If the corporation income tax
plan is applied to these utilities,
in addition to uniform plan for
gross receipts taxes mot the busi-
ness privilege tax it was esti-
mated the revenue collected would
exceed present collections by nearly
S500.000. In the past some officials
have opposed increased taxes on the
utilities on the ground that this
would be an indirect tax on the
consumers of the services of the
utilities, not on the stockholders,
since taxes are chargeable to oper-
ating expenses of the concerns,
which are met out of receipts from
collections from the public.
In this connection. Maj. Donovan
stated in his letter to the utilities
Public utilities, like all other taxed
enterprises. must face the problem
of increased taxation tc meet eX-
penses of Government. While it is
not the desire of those in charge
of making this study, and the ad-
visory committee working with them,
to burden public utilities with excess
sive taxation. it is felt that they must
bear their fair share of the tax
burden"
Donovan Letter to Pond.
In support of his arguments of the
need for increased funds for main
tenance and operation as we'll as
for major improvements, Maj. Dono-
van stated in his letter to DR.. Pond:
1T is a fact that appropriations
from the general fund for capital
improvements have in recent years
been made in significantly smaller
amounts. During the nine fiscal
years, 1925 to 1888, both inclusive,
general fund capital outlay appro-
priations totaled about $82,OOO,O0O,
or an average of 100000 year.
Since 1888, appropriations for
blllo Pun pOSS 1idSC DCCll 1O1lOWo.
1884. 81 1882 90; 1885, So, 100000; 1896,
$3,200000 in 1887 the amount was
raised to s5,3OO00O; in 1888 the
amount remained at $1,000 900, and
for 1899 it dropped to s4,700000. The
1910 budget of the Commissioners
carries total for general fund cap
ital oItlays of about $3.500,OOO."
Il believe there is justification for
considering $6,OO0,OOO as the mini
mum and $7,O0O0OO as the maximum
sum that should be available an
nually in the general fund for ap-
preparations for capital outlays dur
the seven-year period in question.
This amount is based upon the fol-
lowing set-up of average annual re-
quirements (not yet approved by the
commissioners
PUBLIC schools, land and
buildings So, 100000
T. w. A. and park repayments 100000
sewer construction 800. 900
District hospitals $4,000
Water front improvement 10000
Libraries, branches and sites $4,000
Public welfare institutions 100000
Fairgrounds " $4,000
Fire Department ----- 10000
City refuse service ---- 10000
Park improvements -------- 100000
5,7O5,OQQ