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to raise revenue and its method of collection, I invite attention for a moment to the steps taken in accordance with law through and by which the budget is finally enacted into law.

Steps in
Preparation of
Budget

The commissioners about the first of July each year call upon the heads of departments of institutions, and upon each separate head in charge of a governmental function, to submit upon a form prepared for that purpose an estimate of the amount required by his department for the ensuing year, with the caution that said estimate is to be prepared in exactly the same form in which the estimates were prepared for the previous year, and any changes desired or increases required are to be made by means of notes of explanation. This caution is given because of an act of Congress which requires that the estimates shall be prepared and submitted each year according to the order and arrangement of the appropriation acts for the year preceding. This act further provides that "The committees of Congress in reporting general appropriation bills shall, as far as practicable, follow the general order and arrangement of the respective appropriation acts for the year preceding."

After the estimates called for by the commissioners are received, the commissioners proceed to review them, item by item, calling for the facts in each case where there is doubt, and allowing or disallowing, as in their judgment the facts seem to warrant. After all the estimates are thus reviewed, the result is prepared on estimate forms furnished by the Treasury Department. These forms provide to the left of the sheet for the general object, title of appropriation and details and explanation; in the next column provision is made for "Date of acts, or treaties, providing for the expenditure"; this is followed by a column providing for "References to the satutes at large or the revised statutes of the United States relating to such authority." The last three columns provide for the estimated amount required for each detailed object of expenditure, the total amount to be appropriated under each head of appropriation, and the amount appropriated for the previous year. These forms are then transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with law. The law further provides that he shall transmit them

to Congress with a statement as to the extent to which said estimates have his approval.

These estimates being received by the Congress of the United States are sent to the House of Representatives, where under the Constitution of the United States all appropriation bills must originate. The Speaker of the House, in the case of the estimates of the District, refers them to the Appropriation Committee, and that committee, in order to expedite its voluminous duties, refers the estimates to a sub-committee of the main committee, or, as it is called, the District Subcommittee on Appropriations. This subcommittee invites the commissioners to appear before it and explain such items as the committee desires to inquire about, and in some cases it requires hundreds of pages of closely printed matter to cover the scope and detail of their investigations. It must be understood that, in both the estimates and the appropriation bill, the specific salary for each employee is set forth and no change can be made in a salary, once it is fixed by Congress, and what applies to salaries of employees also applies in a very large measure to all other details of appropriation, so that in this respect the District budgetary matters are rather inflexible and to that extent the administration control is limited. However, while I know that this method of limiting funds for municipal work has been criticised, yet it has advantages which must not be overlooked, and the officers of this corporation have learned by experience how to manage under this condition and to secure efficient results.

The bill prepared by the subcommittee after the hearings is then referred to the whole Committee on Appropriations, and by that committee referred to the House of Representatives, where the bill is gone through item by item, and after it has completed this ordeal it is forwarded to the Senate of the United States, where it is referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and reported back to the Senate after

Appropriations hearings have been had in the same manner as in the House of Representatives. It is gone over in the Senate item by item, and if there be changes, which is usual, it is sent back to the House, where, in case the House does not agree, it is sent to conference, the conferees being usually three members

each of the District subcommittee of the House and Senate. When the conferees have finally agreed upon the bill, it is reported to both houses, and, if passed, is sent to the President of the United States for his approval. It is customary for the President, before signing, to refer the act to the commissioners for examination and report as to inaccuracies or other reasons why the measure should not become law.

With this statement of the steps taken in the preparation of the District budget, I invite your attention to the Act of Congress for the past fiscal year which is a counterpart of the result of past budgetary endeavor, and represents in detail the form used for a number of years past.

The Present
Budget

The title to the act is "An act making appropriations to provide for the expenses of the government of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year 1910, and for other purposes." From this caption you would naturally suppose that this act of Congress contained all the allowances and all of the restrictions for and on account of the District of Columbia for that particular fiscal year; however, this is not so, and it is because it is not so that this form is open to a serious objection. An examination of the revenue account of the District for the past year reveals the fact that the following appropriations, which are carried in the sundry civil and the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation acts, were charged against the revenue of the District.

SUNDRY CIVIL APPROPRIATION ACT FOR 1910. APPROVED MARCH 4, 1909.

Improvement and care of public grounds, 1910.

Lighting, etc., executive mansion, etc., 1910..

Lighting public grounds, 1910

Burial of indigent soldiers, 1910

National Zoological Park, D. C., 1910....

Support and medical treatment of destitute patients, 1910...

Maintenance of Garfield Hospital, D. C., 1910:

Maintenance

Repairs, furniture, etc.

Total....

$122,550

4,200

10,200

3,500

95,000

19,000

$19,000

10,000

$29,000

$283,450

LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIAL APPROPRIATION ACT, 1910.

APPROVED MARCH 4, 1909.

Salaries of employees, public buildings and grounds, 1910

[blocks in formation]

Both of these acts of Congress are for purely Federal purposes, and are enacted primarily to carry on the work of the United States government. It is therefore evident that the District budget does not express the true condition of the business of the municipal government.

But it is in the arrangement of the act where the most serious complications are encountered. The act is divided into sections by the following general captions:

General expenses.

Contingent and miscellaneous expenses.
Improvements and repairs.

Sewers.

Streets.

Electrical department.

Washington aqueduct.

Rock Creek park.
Public schools.

For metropolitan police.
For the fire department.
Health department.
Courts.

Interest and sinking fund.
Emergency fund.

For courts and prisons.

Charities and corrections.

This classification, you will observe, is not such that the general business of the District can be stated therefrom, and the more serious condition is that the headings do not represent the appropriations that are grouped thereunder. To give but one example out of the many that exist, I invite your attention to the appro

priations made under the caption "Streets, D. C." This appropriation embraces nine sub-appropriations: For sprinkling, sweeping and cleaning; disposal of city refuse; for the parking commission; bathing beach; for public scales; deep wells; playgrounds; public convenience stations; condemnation of insanitary buildings. In the new form of budget these are classified as follows: Three as objects belonging to health and sanitation; three to recreation; one to protection of life and property; one to public service enterprises; and one to miscellaneous.

From the statement above made, it will be observed that the classification bears no relation to the general lines of business conducted by the government, that there has been no grouping whereby the business of the corporation could be scientifically or otherwise studied. This condition, I desire to say, has arisen, not through any desire on the part of the commissioners or through the will of Congress, but it is the result of thirty years of gradual growth without a permanent scientific appropriating plan.

We now come to the change in form, and I had hoped to present to you for your consideration a complete printed copy in detail of the budget as forwarded to the SecreChange in tary of the Treasury to be transmitted to ConBudgetary Form gress, but up to the present time it has not been so prepared in view of the legislative restriction contained in the present appropriation bill which provides: "Such annual estimates shall not be published in advance of their submission to Congress at the beginning of each regular session thereof."

In order that the commissioners might have before them a form upon which it was proposed to draft the new budget, and that they might consider the needs and requirements of the government business, a statement was prepared of the appropriations for the fiscal years 1906 to 1910, inclusive, and this statement was classified and arranged upon the form of budget proposed. The result of this analysis was most satisfactory in that it gave a comprehensive view of the entire business of the government for a period of five years, and showed what group of appropriations was receiving the greatest portion of the revenue fund, and where the inequalities in appropriations ex

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