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Show WHERE ECONOMY IS NEEDED The federal government has balanced its budget. But before you start to cheev, you might remember that the country contains con-tains 48 state government and several thousand city and county governments ,each of which has a budget of its own; and all but a very few of them could, do with a whole lot more in the way of economy than they have ever had yet. Furthermore, .it is the money spent by these governments that bears most heavily on the average citizen. If federal taxes go up, the citizen of mlodest means may have to pay out $25 in taxes annually instead of $10 ; but his city, state and county governments will take from him if he is a property owner anywhere from $100 to $300 a year, and if he wants relief re-lief from the "burden of taxation" that we hear so much about he ought to remember just what part of the burden it is that is the heaviest. In the main, city and state indebtedness has gone skyrocketing skyrocket-ing in the past decade. In 1930 the states alone owed nearly twx and one-half billions. City debts in most cases have shot up even taster. And there is a lot more lost motion in city and state governments govern-ments than there is at Washington. Inafficiency and graft amount to more. A bigger percentage of the taxpayer's dollar is drained off to take care of "the boys." There is, though, one comfort. It has been proved that honest hon-est and determined executives can cut down state and city budgets bud-gets if they want to. Virginia, for instance, had a deficit of $1,385,000 two years ago. Today it has a surplus of more than $2,500,000. Georgia recently cut down its state departments from 102 to 17 with vast savings. Maine made one agency do the work of 45. North Carolina followed a similar path and saved its taxpayers $12,000,-000. $12,000,-000. In addition, such cities as Milwaukee and Cincinnati have shown how municipal expenses can be slashed if the men at the top really try. Those things are worth remembering. Balancing the federal budget is not enough. The states and cities have got to start economizing too. |