Evening star., 1950-08-10
Cut Local Spending, Too

The Federal lump sum payment of $12 mil
lion to the District is part of the big Omnibus
Appropriation Bill. Both House and Senate
have attempted to cut the non defense, domestic
expenditures in that bill by about 10 per cent.
So 1t is not surprising that the same percentage
cut has been applied to the lump sum-as agreed
upon yesterday by conferees on the District BILL
In the circumstances, this reduction in Fed.
eral expenditures is justified. 1t is the system
of appropriating this Federal payment to the
Municipal Government, rather than the reduc
ton agreed upon yesterday, that is to be criti-
ciZed. The system follows hit-or-miSS method
of paying the Municipal Government for serv-
ices received without any real attempt to
measure the value of the services which exceeds
the Governments payment. The system disre-
CARDS what ought to be the fundamental prn-
ciple that when local tax revenues for support
of this Capital City are increased the Federal
payment should be increased in like ratio-and
that it should be decreased only when there is
q decrease in the amount that local taxpayers
are called upon to furnish.
In consequence, therefore, a reduction of
the Federal payment has the actual effect of
increasing the amount of money that must be
collected from the local taxpayer. For the
services to be rendered are not reduced when the
lump sum is reduced. And over the past few
years. the services and the expenses of the local
Government have steadily increased while the
proportionate amount paid by the Federal Gov
eminent has gone down, instead of up.
Cutting all Federal expenditures is necessary
now-and the reductions so far agreed upon are
not nearly enough. But there should be some
comparable effort to reduce municipal expendi-
lures. The $12 million cut from the Federal
payment should be Offset by like reduction in
the general fund expenditures of the District.
pTk,a Immediately
to make such reductions effective. And the re-
view of all appropriations made for this fiscal
year, recently decided upon by the House Ap-
propriations Committee, should include the ap-
propristions for the District Government.
If this is not DONE another increase in local
taxes-which will be added to the heavy in
crease in Federal taxes now in prospec-will be-
come inevitable in another year or So We have
q paper surplus of funds for this fiscal year. But
the Commissioners have already warned Con-
gress that reduction in the Federal payment
this year will result in a deficit at the end of
the fiscal year 1952-a deficit that will surely
call for another local tax increase, added to the
heavy local tax increases of the past three
years 1t is possible to reduce this years ex-
penditures from local general fund appropria-
tions by $12 million. And it is possible to
offset such heavy new expenditures as those in
prospect for civil defense by making even further
reductions.
In March of 1888 Mr.. Roosevelt entered the
White House after a campaign in which he had
promised to reduce Federal spending by 70
per cent But the only Federal expenditure SO
reduced, in line with the campaign formula
was the lumpysum payment to the District
Other Federal expenditures went up, not down.
It is hoped that history, in that respect, is not
going to repeat itself now so that the only
substantial cut in Federal spending will be
applied to the Governments own supposedly
fixed obligation in support of it's Capital City.