Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-12-31 | Page 64 | City Receipts in 1916 Exceed Three Millions

CITY RECEIPTS 111191c emd THBEEflilOBS Budget System of Accounting Account-ing Extended and Card Indexing of Disbursements Disburse-ments Installed. PLANS FOR SAVING TIME INAUGURATED Serious Problem Must Be Met by Commission When Prohibition Becomes Effective. The city auditors ' department o Salt Lake City, which jnay be termed the city's clearing house, has just completed com-pleted a record year. The number of transactions and volume of business has reached the high mark at the end of the fiscal year just closed. The receipts that have been audited will run well beyond the $3,000,000 mark for the year 1916, and the money disbursed by the auditor will also pas's the $3,000,000 mark. During the year there have been several sev-eral changes made, which have proven to .be of great value. The budget system of accounting which, no doubt is the best for a municipality, mu-nicipality, has been extended and improved im-proved upon. System of Indexing. A card system of indexing all disbursements dis-bursements numerically and alphabetically alphabeti-cally was. installed, so that data relative rela-tive to any expenditure can be obtained instantly. This index is kept up to the minute, which makes reference easy, when compared to the old system which was several months behind. A more systematic arrangement for the issuing and filing of special improvement im-provement warrants has been inaugurated. inaugu-rated. The new method presents all information for ready reference at a glance, and aids in the computation of accrued interest on the vast amount of outstanding coupons, upon which the interest, period rates to a large extent. Special tax sale registers have been installed to facilitate the handling of many sales of property to the citv in lieu of delinquent special taxes. 'The special delinquent tax question is a big problem which multiplies the detail records necessary to handle this situa te New Situation. The treasurer's department, in this connection, has met a new situation which is only in its infancy. This is the outcome of the supreme court ruling, rul-ing, of recent date, which makes it mandatory to sell the property for the whole unpaid tax immediately' upon the delinquency of the first installment. The financial report which is rendered on the first day of the following month, has been improved npon so that it now shows a comparison of the estimated revenue and cash collected for the cur-; cur-; rent month and period to date. The comparison is shown as against the i previous year in every detail on the , report. -Previous to this year the comparison was only shown as to expenditures. There have been several other changes ' made in special rulings and introduction I of new records which have reduced Viii csolidated wrk amd left it that it can be referred front a new prob-Veting prob-Veting on January "bout $150,000 TLhe year 1917, V0 for 1918, valuation, which is placed at $173,000,-000, $173,000,-000, less the outstanding bonds, which amount to $5,248,000. After the consumption of the $1,672,-O00 $1,672,-O00 the city has an additional borrowing borrow-ing power of 4 per cent, which is $6,920,000, but this amount can be only bonded and expended for water and sewer purposes. The .city will be compelled to exhaust ex-haust its bonding power for general purposes first before it bonds itself for water or sewer. Tf water or sewer bonds are issued first, then the door will be closed to general purposes for many years. General purposes could include, the paying for street intersections, intersec-tions, building of fire stations, municipal munici-pal buildings, etc. Third To reduce operating cost, cur-fnil cur-fnil new equipment and improvements, tr, in other words, a general retrenchment retrench-ment all along the line. To retrench V the amount of $250,000 means about V'5 per cent reduction after the elimi-Von elimi-Von of statutory requirements, such Viterest on bonds.