Evening star., 1939-06-21
District Residents Are Heavy
Contributors to Capital Upkeep
In Addition to Loeo Toxes, They
Pay More Than ~ States in National Tuxes

maintained by the water tax (water
genD payers of the District, while
the United States Government and
the District government dts agent)
obtain their large supply of water
free. The fact that cost of plant
development as well as maintenance
is placed upon water tax payers pre-
vents a consistent policy of regular
rate reduction toward that desider-
atum, on sanitary and other grounds,
Of maximum water use at next-to-
nothing cost by the community and
the National Government.
On the contrary, the private con-
sumers of water are now being re-
quired to build up through their wa
ter rents reserve to meet large new
capital outlays that will be needed
to further enlarge the water supply
system during the next decade, part
Of which expansion will serve the
growing needs of the National Gov
ernment.
Gasoline Tax (Street improvement)
The Capitals street system was
laid out on a grand scale, befitting
industrial, beautiful Capital.
The Government in the beginning
promised, through implication, to
maintain the streets. Under the
National Capital-National Govern
ment partnership of 1878 develop
ment and improvement of streets
was shared, the general tax fund
meeting the greater part of the cost
The gasoline tax, originally proposed
as a substitute for the personal
property tax on automobiles, was
enacted as additional, instead of
substitute, taxation. Its revenues
have increased until the greater bur-
den of street land recently BRIDGE
improvement has been shifted from
the general fund Ito which the
United States contributes) to the
gasoline tax fund, with constant
pressure to increase unnecessarily
the gasoline tax rate and to extend
the expenditure of gas tax revenues
to uses other than streets. AS the
National Government pays no gaso-
line tax, the burden for street i'm
provement, impliedly assumed in the
beginning, in the opinion Of COM
mentators, as a Federal RESPONSE
bility and later divided between Ma
ton and community, is thus
gradually shifted from the National
Government to the shoulders of
automobile owners and the general
taxpayers of the District.
ID. c. Sighted in the Past.
The history of Federal aid to the
States also constitutes an added rea-
son why the Nation should share
literally now in the upkeep of its
Capital
Although Washington has been
permitted to share with the States
in Federal grants and loans for re-
lief and public works under the
emergency programs of the past six
years. for many years prior thereto
the National Government distrib-
uted bounties to the States, from
which the Capital City was excluded.
AS George B. Galloway pointed
out in reviewing the growth of Fed
eral aid, in Editorial Research Re-
ports for January, 1881, the practice
of granting subsidies to the States
from the Federal Treasury began
with the land ordinance for the
Northwest Territory in 1785 and has
continued down to the present time.
The Federal-aid highway system,
for example, was started in 1916,
but the District did not share in it
until highway construction was used
to relieve unemployment during the
recent depression, with the match
ing process temporarily suspended.
And now, after lapse of more than
20 years, the District has been made
eligible for future highway grants
under the normal matching process.
1t should be recalled also that
even in making the District eligible
for P. w. A. loan-grant projects
during the depression Congress is
requiring rapid repayment of the
loans, within few years, at the
rate of $1000,000 a year, whereas
the States and other cities are per-
mitted to give P. w. A. long term
bonds for their loans. The District
has no authority to issue bonds, ex-
cept when specifically authorized to
do so by Congress.
AS a large contributor to ma
tional internal revenue collections,
the District, therefore, has contrib
uted heavily to the Federal-aid
bounties from which it was excluded
until recent years.
The inequity in the present situa-
ton will become worse if this session
of Congress imposes new tax bur-
dens and continues to hold the
Federal payment to the $4,000, 900
figure.
Through the justifiable action of
the Senate in raising the lump sum
to $7,750,000 in the pending 1910 ap-
preparation bill Congress has the
first opportunity that has been pre-
sented to it in several years to take
at least partial step back toward
fiscal equity.
The House conferees now delib-
Grating on the final terms of the
1910 supply bill could accept the
$7,750, 900 Federal payment approved
by the Senate and still be fulfilling
only to limited degree the equit-
able philosophy outlined by the 1915
report.