Evening star., 1955-01-17
District BUDGET
Requests SET al
Sis, 5,184,OOO ,
Estimates Hit Peck,
But City Seeks New
Cash and cutbucks
By Don S. Warren

BY Don }. Warren
President Eisenhower today
sent to Congress a District
budget Of $175,184, 900, q record
breaker as expected, but one that
spurred city officials to make new
searches for more economies or
more taxes.
The budget Is unbalanced, as
present revenue estimates 60. by
at least sS60,o00 In the general
fund.
That sum. in q spending plan
Of SITS million, could be abb
sorbed but the relatively small
shortage was achieved only by
leaving out Of the accounting the
customary 81 million cushion for
emergencies and urgent supple
mental appropriations. Other
wise. it would have been ST..
$50. 600.
A bigger financial worry. is
seen in the expected enactment
Of d Federal pay raise bill which.
city officials said. could mean an
added cost of up to 81 million
to the District as city classified
workers and wage board en-
ployes and school teachers come
along for their increases.
Budget To Be Re-examined.
Commissioner Samuel Spencer,
displaying obvious concern over
the financial picture, said studies
already were underway to re-
examine the whole budget.
pay raises. he added, probably
would mean additional taxes
since he saw little hope Of any
increase In the size of the Fed
eral payment only q year after
q big boost when Congress en-
acted the District public works
program.
In other words, the Comnlis-
sioners now are trying to find
ways to cut down their own
budget, short Of dropping neces-
sary public services. Mr.. Spencer
had some worries about that, too.
He said he did not see any
hope for economies that would
cover the cost Of pay raise legis-
lation. That. he concluded. would
require additional revenue.
Low Grocery Tax Yield.
Mr.. Spencer said he was not
prepared at this time to indicate
what extra taxes might be sought
If they are found necessary.
One major reason for the pres
ent dismay of the Commissioners
is that estimates of revenues
from two major sources have
misfired since the budget was
submitted to the Budget Bureau
last November. Expected re-
ceipts from sales taxes. including
the new / per cent levy on groc-
cries and higher taxes on liquor,
were below October estimates BY
$2.850.O0O.
The bill provides for a con-
tinuation Of the Districts $305
million l0-year public works pro-
gram, even though the Commis-
sioners found it necessary to
slash more than SIS million from
the original requests OF their
department chiefs.
Even SO, the city heads kept In
the bill $40.396.000 for capital
outlay, only q few thousand
short Of this years appropria-
ton.
l,O00 Extra Employees Denied.
Where some heavy cuts have
been made already, however, Is
indicated by tabulations show
ing that department heads asked
for funds for the employment OF
1889 extra employees. The city
heads approved only $50. and So
Of these were in positions where
there would be cost reimburse
ment. That cut the extra oper-
ating costs from SAT million to
$l.2 million.
The new financial headache
develops less than q year after
Congress laid an additional $l4
million tax on the District tc
help finance the huge public
works program. along with 8
Jump in the Federal payment
from si2 million to $40 million
q year, plus some extra Federal
costs for sewer and water serv-
ices.
The development program has
been started IN full faith. with
the District charting more f0l
Continued on Page AT. Col. ID