Evening star., 1947-02-16

By Lilo.
CHICAGO.-Farm boys who went
to the cities to make their money
now are moving to the country te
spend it, and in their wake the
cities are left with a host of fiscal
problems.
Nor is it only the farm-born seq
ment of the population that is in
volved in this reversal Of Q his.
toric migration pattern. All sec
tions of the population, municipal
experts say, are seeking escape from
congestion, crowded living quarters
and bad air. They are utilizing
automobiles and speedy transpor-
tation to commute to work in cities
where they no longer pay taxes.
Likewise there has been a change
in the components of the popula-
ton. People are older, there has
been q slowing up of the birth rate
and q rise in the average age. The
consequence is a demand for new
and different services on the part oi
the city government.
The residual problem for the city
is this: How can expanding services
be maintained over an unshrinkable
geographic area from which large
portion of the inhabitants have
moved, but who still work and play
in the area? How can municipal
finances, subject to rigid State con-
trolls, meet the climbing outgo:
The Tax Institute of New York
says New York'S Manhattan district
lost one-fifth of it's population be-
tween 1910 and 1880. Cincinnati
basin district lost one-fourth dur
ing the same period-a migration
which took former residents outside
the taxation limits, and which was
common throughout the Nation.
Services Meet Demand.
Decentralization, it is called. i
,upplants the 10Th century pat
tern of rapid and continuous growth
which brought cities to what Lewis
Mumford has called the "megalo-
politan" stage.
The new trend has been estab-
lished by both official and unofficial
statisticians. Yet the services pro-
vided by the city in response to its
growth remain, and are growing III
response to demand and necessity.
A few-a very few-examples OF
these services would include rail-
roads, public utilities, markets, ports
and harbors, the traditional police
and fire protection, public health
hospitals, education, broadcasting
stations, traffic control and so on al
most endlessly.
Compare this highly selected list
ing with any complete tabulation of
municipal services of say 100 years
ego. In 1924 Detroit gave its citi-
ems "a services. BY 1912 this had
isen to 396 with no signs of stop
Ding.
Where does the money come from
nd; more important, from whence
an it be obtained today?
Historically American cities have
depended heavily upon the general
property tax. Even today the 49,
100 units of local government derive
rom 83 to SO per cent OF their
.evenue from this single source.
Second in Importance is the aid
he localities receive from their re-
?ective States. This varies from
itate to State, and in five States
florida. Kentucky, Nevada, Texas
nd Vermont-no State aid what
YER is forthcoming.
Tax Exemptions Great
Localities first sought to increase
heir property tax revenues through
uch devices as reassessment, Ion
Der cent valuation, removal of ia,
xemptions where possible and the
Ike. =.
But there are stumbling block!
here. Tax exempt property acros:
he Nation, it is estimated by the
Council of State Governments al
more than $26, 100000, or 1e
per cent of the Nations taxable
property. Most of it is concentrated
in cities.
New York City, for example, has
more than s5,5OO,oO0, 900 tax-exempt
property within its limits in the
form of schools, churches and pri-
marily Government property. Fifty
two other cities of more than l0O,.
600 population have such property
in total of $11 900 0O0, 900, the Censu:
Bureau estimates.
The difficulties in the way o1
lifting tax exemptions are mani
fold. There is, moreover, sort Of
political ceiling" against lifting
property tax rates. In its publica-
ton. "State-Local Relations" the
Council of State Governments said
Though localities have been his
torically dependent upon this (the
property tax for the largest pro-
portion of their income, the tax Is
apparently incapable of expanding
at a rate sufficient to meet grow
ing local expenditures. This is
probably due to political causes a.
much as to economic ones, and there
seems at this time little possibility
of breaking property tax rates
through the political ceilings against
which they are now hard-pressed.
Thus the almost desperate hum
for new sources of revenue. Already
with less than half the century
past, these new taxes, undreamee
of even so years ago, represent from
2 to IT per cent of local revenue
In some insulated instances, non.