Evening star., 1945-11-17
BiIbo Joins Protests
On Finance Plan for
Court Building
BY DON S. WARREN.

A new protest against the plan
to give District taxpayers credit for
only half the value of the District
owned land TO be used as site for
the projected new SIC, 800 900 Fed
eral courthouse came today from
Chairman Bilbo of the Senate Dis
trict Committee.
He joined with others, in and out
of Congress, in the contention that
if a $3.50 division of the projects
cost is to be made between the Fed
eral and District governments, then
the District Should be given credit
for the full amount of the appraised
value of its land.
Companion bills to authorize the
new courthouse on equal matching
money basis were offered yesterday
first in the House and later in the
Senate by Chairman Lanham and
Chairman Andrews of the House
and Senate Public Buildings and
Grounds Committees.
Stefan Files Protest.
A few minutes after the House bill
was dropped into the hopper by
Chairman Lanham, protest against
the financial arrangement came
from Representative Stefan, Re-
publican, of Nebraska, ranking mi
nority member of the House Appro-
priations Subcommittee.
He maintained that if the costs
are to be equally divided, then the
District should be given full instead
of half credit for land ownership.
He pointed out that the District had
taken several losses since buying
the site 13 years ago. These are, he
said: Loss of interest on taxpayer
funds invested in the site: loss of
tax revenues, which came earlier
from the then privately owned area
In addition. he said, there would be
an annual loss when the area now
used as parking lot was converted
for the Federal building.
Chairman Lanham declined to
commit himself on the fiscal rela-
tions problem, but he promised such
issues would be among those con-
sidered at the forthcoming public
hearings. A similar expression came
from Chairman Andrews of the Sen
ate committee, who suggested it may
not be necessary to hold Senate
hearings if, as planned, members
of the Senate group sit in on the
House hearings.
Senator Andrews brought out that
the District had bought the site 13
years ago as part of the tract
acquired for the Municipal Center
and had paid for this portion ST.
10000. its present value, as ap-
praised by the Public Buildings
Administration is s2,420,000.
Committee Issues Statement.
On the question of the division OF
costs between the Federal and Dis
trict governments for the new Fed
eral Courts projects, statement
prepared for the congressional COM
mittees said:
"As the District government al
ready owns the site, evaluated at
S2,420000, and as the District and
Federal governments are to share
the cost on a $3.50 basis, the Dis
trict government will be allowed to
deduct, as a credit, from its share
of the cost of the building, one-halt
of the value of the site, or ST.
10000"
BY this method of figuring, Fed
eral advocates arrived at the
thought that the District would bt
paying only $3,94o,000 on the com.
pleted project while the Fedora
Government would be meeting S.,
100000 of the total cost.
In answer to this, District advo
Gates asked: What will cover th'
loss to the District for the lack o
interest on the 13-year-old Distric
investment in the site, ordered b.
Congress as part of the municipa
center site; the loss of tax revenue
to the District by reason of taking
this large area off the tax rolls i
years ago, and loss of some annua
revenues in recent years by reasol
of leasing this area to a parking 10
concessionnaire. which will b
stopped when the land is used TO
the new court building.