Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-09-23
Local Budget Realities


as usual, on the total amounts re-
quested by the municipal depart
ments in their 1e47 budget esti-
mates. The figure this year will
top S90,000000. But these estimates
will be scaled down, as matter of
course, to come within available
revenue-a sum which has not been
made public.
More important than these eSti-
mates, which in the main are the
recommendations of how to spend
money if it were available, is the
astonishing increase during the war
years of operating the municipal
government. Two things have
tended to obscure the significance
of this increase. One was that it
took place during a time of increas-
ing tax revenues, rejecting wartime
prosperity. The other is that capital
outlay was held to a minimum be-
cause construction materials and
labor were scarce, presenting
fictitious picture of surplus reve-
nueS. This year, for the first time
since the war, the local government
and local taxpayers are facing some
realities in local budget making.
Here is what has happened in cost
Of operation and maintenance:
a. 80, 10000 As 40 ,O88, O56
'43- ii, 462,991 40 $1,000 .000*
Estimated.
The increases In operating costs
are accounted for almost entirely by
Federal wage policies, which auto
matically apply to municipal en-
ployes without any consideration
whatsoever to the question of where
the money is coming from to pay
the higher salaries. The result, of
course, is to reduce the amount of
funds otherwise available for en-
larging capital outlay and improv-
ing municipal services. Local tax
revenue may be expected to level off
now or decrease.
While the citizens who testify at
the Commissioners hearings, called
for Thursday at 10 o'clock, will be
chiefly concerned with approval of
budget items In which they are in
terested, they should unite on one
thing-which is to support the Com
missioners in an effort this year to
convince Congress that from every
standpoint, both of equity and
common-sense budgeting, the Fed
eral payment must be increased. 1t
remains now at $6,000,00O, where it
has been for years. Yet salary in
creases approved by Congress this
year alone, in line with national
policies and without relation to local
revenue Availability, have increased
payroll expense by about $6,OOOO 900.
The National Government, which
controls the Capital, must bear its
share of the costs which Congress.
and Congress alone, DEGREES for the
local taxpayer.
The prospects of convincing Con-
gress as to the necessity of increas-
ing this payment are better this
year than in the past. The House
Appropriations Committee in recent
years has indicated its sympathy.
The Senate Appropriations Com
mlttee has completed one study,
which is being amplifed, to estab-
llsh a fixed formula that will auto
matically measure the amount of
the Federal payment, taking it out
of the status now of an arbitrary
allotment made without reference
to single tangible fact. If local
taxes were low, additional revenue
could be supplied by raising them.
But they are high now, and they are
paid by diminishing area of real
estate and by relatively small per-
centage CT Washington's population.
The coming year is a critical one
for Washington, and the Commits
sioners must have full support from
taxpayers in correcting an ineoui-
table and even dangerous condition