to be the needs of the District, and that is why I commented on the fact that I would have liked to have had the information to correlate those facts together with the budgetary requirements, plus your capital outlays, and check them with the estimated receipts from these different sources. I think that the total revenue from all these taxes, if they were enacted into law, would yield, I believe it was, $19,000,000. General McCOACH. That includes the gas tax. Mr. BATES. Nineteen million, I think, was the total increase, was it not? General McCOACH. Yes. Mr. BATES. And you think 10 million is enough? Mr. BATES. For the general fund. General McCOACH. Yes; plus the gas tax, which is about one million, making a total of eleven million six. Mr. BATES. What would be needed in addition to satisfy the overall requirements of the District that we are considering, the general fund, the water fund, and the highway-what would be the over-all requirements for the other two funds? Water, of course, would take care of itself, but through this new legislation. General McCOACH. According to our own estimate, it would be about ten million for the general fund, about a million six for the highway fund, and water is taken care of by Mr. BATES. By a proposed new bond issue. General McCOACH. Yes. Mr. BATES. And the District taxing Federal and District water use. General McCOACH. Yes. Mr. BATES. Then, that is eleven million six. Now, how much revenue in excess of that eleven million six do you think these taxes will develop? General McCOACH. Well, we are not in agreement entirely with the Commissioners on the estimated revenue. We believe that a sales tax would be at least $12,000,000, and they estimate nine. We believe it would be 12, and it might approach 15. We are in agreement on the alcoholic beverage tax, and frankly we have not gone into the others too closely because we do not think the combined are enough to raise the $10,000,000 and therefore, if you take the sales tax -- Senator CAIN. In your opinion, based upon your assumption of 10 million being adequate for general fund purposes, a 2-percent sales tax, from your conclusions, would be more than adequate in itself? General McCOACH. Yes; that is right. Mr. BATES. Now, the 1-percent sales tax, you think, may yield, you think, six million. Senator CAIN. From five to seven. General McCOACH. I would say that. Do you agree with that, Bill? Mr. PRESS. We estimated that it would yield approximately $5,000,000 if enacted now for the next fiscal year, because you could probably also count on a two-thirds return in the year; but on a full year it would be about seven million. Senator CAIN. How does it happen that you have not been able to réconcile your estimate of revenue from the sales tax, for example, with the Commissioners'? General McCOACH. Well, Senator, after all, they are all estimates. Senator CAIN. That is right. General McCOACH. They are all estimates. Mr. PRESS. Let me make one further observation there, Senator. Our estimates are predicated on the assumption that the sales tax will not be shot through with a lot of exemptions. Senator CAIN. But you are familiar with the exemptions in the bill that we are considering. Mr. PRESS. For example, we think some of those should be tightened up, and we will testify to that effect Senator CAIN. You will return to the bill? Mr. PRESS. Yes, sir. Mr. BATES. You think that a 1-cent gasoline tax in a full year will only yield a million six? General McCOACH. I think that that is a fair estimate. Of course, that all depends on how rapidly we get the same number of cars per thousand population, using the same amount of gasoline per car as we did in 1945; that again is another guess, and that is the reason we put in here a provision for variation in case the yield is higher than required. Mr. BATES. And your estimate of the alcoholic-beverage tax is approximately that of the Commissioners, two million two? General McCOACH. Yes. Mr. BATES. Now, as to the beer tax and the cigarette tax, do you have any comment on those? General McCOACH. No, sir. You may have some opposition as to the estimated yield on that but we did not consider those taxes. Senator CAIN. You are just assuming that they are unnecessary, providing the other approach is taken. General McCOACH. Yes, sir. Senator CAIN. I think Mr. Bates and I, both, have agreed with you for a very long time with reference to the Federal side of this picture, and it gives us, as legislators, a considerable amount of concern and worry as a practical matter of how to arouse the sympathy and interest of the Congress over that legislation. If we knew beyond question that we could get the approval of a reasonable figure, the rest of the financing would be relatively easy; but if we jockey around with that, as you well know, for a period of some months, and then find that we are figuring General McCOACH. You cannot hide the fact of the last 2 or 3 years of increased costs. If the District is going to carry on with the same efficiency, better efficiency than they had before, and if we are going to make a reasonable development plan, then I do not see how we can avoid increased revenue from some source. Senator CAIN. Well, if Congress has time to sit and listen to the story, I think the Congress will support the program that comes out of this joint committee. But there are lots of things running around these days. Mr. BATES. General, as chairman of the committee on municipal finance of the board of trade, I wish you would give us the benefit of this long-range program in reviewing the over-all needs of these new revenues. General McCOACH. You mean the capital program? Mr. BATES. Yes. Not today, but General McCOACH. No, sir. Mr. BATES. You said 1948. That is being studied. Mr. BATES. But these new revenues are geared to '49 particularly, and from then on, and we have got to be able to show the Congress the need of the revenue, otherwise, we would not have any chance whatever of getting our recommendations through unless we could balance it off with the needs of the District, and for that reason I wondered whether or not you knew that the highway department has programed these projects over a period of 5 years, giving preferential treatment to some of the projects, and the estimated costs of the same; and then we have the school-building program, and the publicbuilding program, which have been scheduled over a period of years, one after another. General MOCOACH. The highway program definitely has for a period of at least 5 years; the rest of the program I am not sure whether that has been scheduled by years or not. Mr. BATES. I presume the building program probably has been worked out pretty carefully, especially school buildings; that is true as to the imperative needs, and they give preferential status to some buildings, and perhaps that may carry over 4 or 5 years. I would like to see some kind of a program of that sort on paper of the estimated costs so that we will have something to gear this additional revenue to, and the argument we will be required to make before the Congress. General McCOACH. Well, I am sure that General Young has such a program worked out by years. I personally have not seen it. All I have seen is the original listing of all of the projects. Mr. BATES. The reason I asked that is because you say $10,000,000 is enough of an increase, and anything over and above that is excess, and you have not had time, say, to study that projected program and you would not be fully informed as to the needs in the years to come as to whether or not $10,000,000 really is sufficient. General McCOACH. Of course, there is plenty of room for difference of opinion as to how fast you want to do any such program. Mr. BATES. That is right. But the opinion that you would have, your board, your board of trade, your committee representing the board of trade, would be invaluable to us in getting in the back of our minds what we might consider to be the real needs of the District or of the growing community. You must have a backlog of a tremendous number of projects all through that period. General McCOACH. Oh, yes. Mr. BATES. There must be a tremendous number of projects to develop, and they must be geared into a tax program so that we can intelligently determine the need of this program. General McCOACH. Yes, sir. Mr. BATES. Then if, in our opinion, we feel there is a need, we could go in there with a recommendation, with every desire of getting it through. Certainly, we cannot say to Congress that we want $19,000,000, and be asked questions of: "What do you want them for?" and be unable to answer. General McCOACH. We have other committees of the board of trade who have gone over that program in detail as to the need of the various items. Mr. BATES. I wonder if they could give us a report--give us a report within a week or so; make some kind of a study. General McCOACH. What is the status of that? Mr. PRESS. I think 2 weeks would be closer to it. Mr. BATES. Well, that will only delay this work. But, General, you have been before Congress for a good many years, and you know how difficult it is to get the Congress to authorize a levying of taxes, especially a new program over which there is a great deal of opinion, difference of opinion, as you say, and not only as to the character of taxes but the need of the revenues flowing from those taxes, and we have got to be able to tell the Congress that we are recommending these taxes, whatever they may be, because of the need of the District, and we have got to be able to tell them what that need is, and we have got to be able to say to them, on the basis of information that we have received, the testimony that was offered by representative citizens, organizations of the District, that in our opinion it is necessary to have this money. We have not that information at the moment, other than in a general way, that you have scheduled a great many projects over a period of years; and I would like to see them tied down, say, for 5 years, and see what that program is, in general. General McCOACH. Yes, sir. Senator CAIN. I would like to have, if you, Mr. Press, would submit them, for a record, a series of those charts. Mr. PRESS. Yes, sir. Senator CAIN. Break them down, both the charts Mr. BATES. The information on which they are based. Senator CAIN. Yes. Both the charts and the information on which they were based. (The charts and the information referred to are as follows:) 99538-47 -40 |