Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1916 — NEW YORK’S EXPENSES [ARTICLE]

NEW YORK’S EXPENSES

/‘Manhattan was bought from the Indians for $24 worth of trinkets. It will cost $211,115,015 for the city's upkeep in 1917.” Such is the statement with which the New York Sun begins an account of the enormous financial responsibilities which now rest upon New York city. The figure quoted is the amount of the budget approved on November 1, and it represents not extravagance, but,, according to the city’s experts, “cost paring to a degree almost'unsafe.” The total debt of the city is $1,475,572,596.38, and there is an item in the budget calling for almost $70,000,000 to jbe applied to this debt. The city financial authorities charge this to wild oats, claiming that before the present system of budget was introduced, and when political corruption was the rule in New York municipal affairs, the city acquired a great many unnecessary debts. In new .SI,OOO bills, the annual appropriation would fill a box five feet square and five feet deep. It would make a stack of new SIOO bills higher than the Woolworth building, and if it was in $t bills, placed end to end, it would extend three-quarters of the way around the world at the equator. New York spends $6.75 a second to keep itself going, or about $575,000 in every twenty-four hours. Expressed in terms of national expense, it is shown That the debt of New York city is greater than that of the United States, if certificates and treasury stock are excluded. It is more than the combined debts of New York state, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The budget alone is great enough to cover the annual expenditure of Texas, Montana and Alaska, which have a total area of about 1,000,000 square miles, compared with New York city’s 315 square miles. The United States paid a total of $79,990,000 for the Louisiana purchase, the Gadsden purchase, Florida, Oregon, part of California, Alaska, the Hawaiian islands, Porto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, a total of 2,861,171 square miles, for which an amount was paid equal to about!

one-third of New York city’s annual expense. When Mexico was peaceful and prosperous, and before Canada took a hand in the European war, their combined annual expenses were less than those of New’ York city. Thia year’s budget would have borne the combined annual expenses of Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Luxemburg, Montenegro, Norway and Switzerland. Figuring gasoline at 21 cents a gallon——the price which prevailed recently—New York’s annual budget would just meet the gasoline bill of the United States. But it shoplfi also be observed that, according to the latest figures on the cost of the European war, the New York budget would defray the expenses of all parties concerned for only two days, estimating that the war is costing $105,000,000 a day. After the debt is decreased and the interest on it is met. the greatest single item in the expense account is education. This costs the city $ 11,425,000 a year; and, incidentally, the finance committee which makes the budget is more likely to be generous with this appropriation than any other. The police force costs $17,780,000 and the fire department $9 206,000. The department of water and gas costs $6,052,000; charities, $4,351,000; street cleaning, $7,741,000; the health department- $3,335,000, and the department of correction, sl,536,000. In addition there are the hospitals, the docks and ferries departments, the law department, the park board, the civil service board, the courts, and the various city offices and institutions to be maintained. In spite of these huge appropriations, there are many experts who believe that the city’s financial affairs are in better condition than ever. There hag for some time been much agitation for a new court house, but the city fathers, while recognizing the need, 1- ive thought it wise to make the lest of the old one until the debt i> reduced. The increased cost of living has necessitated the raising of salaries in order to hold skilled employes who were being attracted to other fields, and these appropriations have been made without hesitation, but in general the committee which prepares the budget cuts every item as much as safety permits, and in this way the city hopes to reduce the burden on future generations.