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Show TAX REDUCTION ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED T' rcrepir.eU for the city of . II: r"hr..I, to adopt a : ' ! curin-, tax reduction that ; '. : var.'c::! and logical yt c.-f.fCil. Under this system, the city of Baltimore has reduced its tax rate per hundred dollars of valuation valu-ation from 1924 to 1927 inclusive as follows: S2.90, S2.pS, '$2.48, $2.39. During this same four-year period the city wiped out a deficit of 51,130,000 and in addition met the demand of a growing population by increasing school appropriation $400,000, fire protection $300,000, a new pension system $500,000, school teachers $330,000. Here is acutal tax reduction plus increased service to the taxpayers. How wa sthis done? Anyone interested inter-ested should get a copy of the Mayor's May-or's message to the members of the city council, dated May 9, 1927. Briefly the idea which brought remarkable re-markable results was this:' A Baltimore Balti-more businessman pointed out that in every city in examination of the tax rolls will disclose that from ten to fifteen individual taxpayers head the list, in .the total amount of tax?s annually paid to the city government; that these large taxpayers are gen-successful gen-successful private corporation; that a study of the internal operation of these taxpayers will show that thev usually have one or more men whose business it is to follow the expense dollar to find ways and means of getting get-ting more at the same cost or the results has been at less cost; that the one expense dollar not followed in this way in the past has been the tax dollar, although through this outlet goes a very substantial portion of the earnings of such taxpayers. It wa3 proposed to the city of Baltimore Balti-more to lend the city of Baltimore the men they employ to follow their expense ex-pense dollar, the city of Baltimore agreeing to open wide all city departments depart-ments for their studies and the studies stud-ies of their representatives, the city of Baltimore further agreeing to adopt ad-opt recommendations that would produce pro-duce more efficient city operation. The Mayor agreed to this program and appointed a special committee on . efficiency and economy comprised of thirteen members picked from the leading industrial, business, public utility and railroad companies in Baltimore, including the chairman of the Public Service Commossion and the city solicitor. From a disorganized city government govern-ment with departments overlapping with no uniform system of accounting, account-ing, . employing labor, collecting money, paying bills, collecting taxes, or carrying on its busines, this committee com-mittee put Baltimore on as sound a business basis as the best-managed corporation. We have all talked about installing install-ing business methods into government. govern-ment. It has remained for Baltimore to adopt a practical program along such a line and to profit marvelously by the result. Business leaders in all communities would be glad to cooperate coop-erate with government autohorities to bring about similar results. If this were adopted generally the savings to the taxpayers would be enormous. i |