Evening star., 1954-05-16
District Sees
No Big Hitch
Offices Get Reody
For Slab Million
Boost in Revenue
By John w. Stepp

caught IN wise. OlSCrlcC omclalS
nonetheless expect to institute
the city's new tax program with
no major bitches.
President Eisenhower is sched-
uled to sign the big revenue bill
at $50 am. Tuesday. Congress
sional and District leaders are
expected to be present for the
ceremony at the White House.
The measure will bring in an
estimated $143 million addi-
tional annually from local tax
sources. It also authorizes an
increase of SO million a year in
the Federal payment and about
81 million more in Federal loans.
The overall purpose of the legis-
lation is to finance the 10-year
$305 million public works i'm
provement program for the Ma
tion's Capital.
Success After TwO-Ye Effort.
Local authorities spent two
years getting the works program
into shape, convincing Congress
of the need and winning legis-
lative approval of means to
finance the massive building
plan. With achievement only a
pen-scrawl away, the city last
week turned to the problems of
actually putting the new tax
structure into effect.
The operation is one Of fine
detail. And the biggest part of
it involves the new water rates
and innovation of a sewer serv-
ice charge.
Heretofore the District has
billed it's water customers once
a year. In the future, l'illing will
be semi-annually and include
the sewer as well as water
charges. The new system was
decided on to ease the impact
of the new charges which range
from 9 to % per cent higher for
water plus a sewer use charge
of half the amount of the water
bill.
What the changeover means
administratively Is this:
l. It virtually doubles the pres
ent Office and field force of the
water division since water meters
now will have to be read and
the billing details registered
twice a year.
2. It replaces present billing
machines with those which can
record water and sewer charges
in one operation.
New Rates Effective August J..
Provided that Congress ap-
proves the request for more water
division employees, the Office fig
ures to have the new water
sewer accounting system ready by
the time the higher charges go
into effect August /.
A jam-up of sorts Is antici-
pated in getting the higher
alcoholic beverage taxes actually
under way. But from a practical
standpoint it won't be serious.
according to Tax Collector Guy
w. Pearson.
The higher levy on liquor,
wines and beer takes effect the
day after the revenue bill is
signed. While necessary papers
to be sent to the city's $500
beverage license-holders are be-
ing prepared, they can't be de-
livered to all dealers in the few
hours between the bill signing
and the effective date.
Among these documents will be
copies of the new law and regu-
lations implementing the law; a
letter explaining the new Setup
and affidavit forms. The affidavit
compliance will take time, Mr..
Pearson said, because on these
forms the license holders must
attest to the amount of alcoholic
beverage stock on hand and
what amount of it bears the
necessary tax stamps, as well as
the number Of unused old stamps
on hand.
A later detail will be for
license-holders to pay the District
the difference between the old
rate and new rate on stamps and
stamped stock on hand at the
time the new law takes effect:
Personal Property Tax Ends.
The city's 3,0O0-plus cigarette
dealers, large and small, will be
sent similar papers, including
affidavits regarding their cigar
cite stocks.
Abolition of the personal prop
erty tax on household goods will
give the Assessors Office the pro-
found pleasure of removing from
its active files all traces of this
old, bothersome and unenforce-
able levy. Other than that, and
minor preparations for keeping
records Of the property tax on
boats, the division will proceed
as before with enforcing the tax
on business property only.
The various sales tax increases
and innovations are expected to
give no particular headache since
the August / deadline give the
assessor ample time to organize
for the new grocery tax and to
conduct a program of educating
merchants on the new require
ments and methods of reporting
receipts.
Income tax forms must be
altered to list the one per cent
higher tax rate in each taxable
income category. Real estate tax
bills will be altered only to show
the new rate. The remaining in
creases on the list involve so
few organizations or have such
a far-removed deadline that no
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