The Daily Alaska empire., 1949-11-26
STATEMENT ON
 CITY FINANCES
 MADE BY MAYOR

10 lIe TSSlucIllS dilNt t"Hfs"J V of the City of Juneau:
 For your information I herewith present a condensed. report in com parative form on the financial con dition of your city as of March 3l, l949, and the six months ending September 30, 1949 These state ments have been prepared for pub lication from the audit report ol c. J. Ehrendreich, C-P.A, which was submitted to the Common Council on November 3, 1949. Copies of the adult are on file ill the of- flee of the City Clerk and may be inspected upon request.
 The statement of income and ex- pense gives the sources of our in- come and shows the amount oi our operating expenses for the per iod
 From the statement of financial condition you will note that we nave added S148,898. to City land and property, and S279699.15 to our permanent improvements, our work ing funds have increased $20,6l6.45 and we have retired $l6,000 of prlor years bond issues. In order to ac- complish this, besides meeting our operating expenses, we had to ls- sue additional bonds in the amount of $410,0O0 and increase our bank loan to S15O,o0O.
 Under general debt we have shown the balance we owe the Ju- neau Independent School District for the 1949-1950 school year. There was no corresponding balance for the preceding year, as the schools were then under City jurisdiction instead of the separate entity they are now.
 As of September 30, 1949 our gen. eral debt exceeds our working funds by approximately Si5,ooo and in ad- dition to providing for current op- erating expenses, we must also ac- cumulate sufficient funds to re- tire S26,000 of bonds as well as ln- terest payments of approximately $l9.O0O by September 30, 1850. This is a serious situation, and your Common Council recognizes 1t as one of our most important prob lems.
 With respect to the statement of income and expenses, you will at once notice that expenses eX- ceed income during the last six months by $123,55122. This was due to the fact that the real estate and personal tax levy was not made until after the close of the period, plus the fact that the revenues from business licenses has decreas- ed appreciably, and liquor licenses will not become due until the end of the year. If it had not been for the Territorial contribution of $90,- GOO last years operations would have shown an excess of expenses over income in the amount of $5,- 87l.14. The contribution referred to was made to assist us in the construction of the Airport Term inal Building and not for general City purposes.
 While our operating expenses for the last six months are less than half of what they were for the year ending March 31, 1949, it should be remembered that street department expenses will probably increase appreciably during the next six months due to weather conditions. All of the other de- partmental expenses have been sev- erly curtailed and we do not believe they can be reduced further without jeopardizing the services you ex- pect your City to render.
 Tax and business license revenues during the next year are expected to be somewhat less than they were during the year previous due to general economic conditions, and this too presents very serious problem. If we are to pay off our current debts and to continue to render the various services, you, as residents, demand of your City, ad- ditional revenues or sources of re- venues will have to be found.
 Assuming population of 5000 for the City, during the six months just ended, operating expenses-in- cluding interest but excluding de- preciation-amounted to $19.85 per capita as compared to $41.34 fol the year ending March 31, 1949