Evening star., 1947-03-28
Mr.. Horan and the District
Our Voteless Taxpayers Should Read This and
Decide What to Do About It
See EDITORIAL. "Onnissons Noted"

See Editorial: "(
Wednesday to the Joint committee studying
Morsa q sss e Roass s On
District Appropriations.)
Mr.. Horan: Mr.. Chairman, have
. naturally been following your proceed
interest. I am very proud of the Ma
tion's Capital
I said in news release last Sunday
$100, 600, ,000 or 5000 900 900 for the Ma
tion's Capital running expenses was not
out of order
teachers salaries which, think, are
subject to adjustment.
have to drive through the District
on my way to the Capitol every morn
ing and I know that Engineer Commis-
sioner Gordon Young's plans for the
District have good deal of merit in
them.
But do not think that merely pull
ing Jimmy Valentine on the Federal
Treasury is the solution I think that
is lazy mans approach to solving the
problem of the District.
We could give s5o,00o,0o0 out of the
Federal Treasury and it would not solve
anything.
Personally, would like to vote for
home rule for the District, but I do
not think the District is ready for
citizenship. I do not think there is
enough feeling of responsibility on the
part of the people that live in the
District of Columbia. mean it.
I think, we have conglomeration Of
authorities and prerogatiyes and con-
flicts here that have got to be looked
at realistically and solved before we
can have the kind of government we
should have.
In spite of what the assessor said, I
do not think property taxes are high
enough. I do not think there Is enough
responsibility felt in the spending of
money.
I want to cite little incident. It IS
very, very small, but it will illustrate
what mean.
Cost Of the Restaurant Floor.
Several weeks ago, we considered a
deficiency appropriation. Among other
things, there was an item for $500, to
relay a floor in sea food restaurant
down on the wharf which the District
rents. The item was for $780, and
having had some experience in that
sort of thing, questioned the item i'm
mediately. I took a member of the
architect of the Capitols staff with
me down to the restaurant and looked
at it. Following that, 1 asked the re-
sponsible member of the District Gov
ernment to send me a sketch of that
restaurant so that we could figure out
what floor for that restaurant should
cost, with drain, so that it would
pass the Health Departments specifica-
tions.
When I called up the responsible
office in the District government, they
did not have a sketch, and yet they had
come up here and asked for deficiency
of $500. They did draw one and 7
sent 1t down to the architect of the
Capitol and got letter back from him
stating that for 81 ,425 "a inch magma
site flooring could be laid in that dis
trict, and for $275 additional, a coping
around the edges could be laid, for a
total cost of $l,695 to relay the floor
in this property which the District
Government gets $1,000 a year rental
out of.
At my urging, that item was allowed
in the deficiency appropriation. It was
allowed with provision that the his
Tory of the. rentals of that property be
ssEeviewed. ~; -
Think that should be done through
out gthe District. I think the solution
Of The Districts problems, and I mean
this, because do read this little PAM
phlet- here put out by the superin-
tendent of schools, and I am sympa-
thetlc, think these solutions will have
to be had because it is going to cost
more 10 run the District government,
Needed-A Responsible Government.
think the layout of the District as
I have already indicated, may have been
1lne when LEnfant, or whoever it was
who laid out this town, planned WASH
mgton, but think the age of the atomic
bomb rules out the barricading circles,
and so forth, which our trafic furthers
in some respects
So, If we are going to look forward to
the things the District needs, we have
got to do two things. We have got to
have responsible government.
want to read for the record right
here, something that perhaps is only
tangent, but here is list Of few of the
parts of the District government that
are not even under the Commissioners,
according to my understanding, and yet
they are part of the District Budget.
The Washington Aqueduct. National
Guard, which functions here. National
Capital Parks, as we all know. The Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning Com
mission. National Geological Park. Reg
lister of Wills and Recorder of Deeds.
snf
government, and yet we do not give
them control over. the very things that
make up at least a portion of the Dis
trict life.
think some pattern has got to be had
have to salve the arrogance and the
pride of some of the subdivisions Of gov
ernment that we find here, but I think
somebody in the District government is
absolutely responsible.
Somebody should have checked on
that $500 item, small as it is, and yet
nobody did. Suppose that we allowed it.
Presumably, $1,7OO would have been
covered back into the Treasury by the
District, but the District would have been
charged with appropriating more than
they had to-.
Secondly, think we are going to have
to have more property taxes here in the
District. and + am happy to see this
committee going into that. BY property
taxes. that is not going to solve the
thing, when about only $1,000 people, as
understand it, out of total population
of 900 some thousand in the District pay
property taxes.
Mr.. Fowler--Income taxes.
Mr.. Horan-How many pay property
taxes?
NEr EouyIor h,s,{ 1Sn mn ,oo rcole o,d