Show formula for household budget Is applied to city governments CHICAGO because the housewife who purchases a kitchen spoon faces aces the same problem as the municipal official who shops for a steam shovel the problem of a budget domestic or governmental a quarter of a million women in american cities and towns have begun to apply their experience in household budgeting to measure the efficiency of their municipal government since january women in 50 of these communities have initiated i k it on surveys of their N r local governments P which ch promise to bring about higher standards of economy and efficiency in municipal operations according to mrs melville mucklestone president of the national consumers tax mrs melville commission commissi 0 n mucklestone whose campaign for tax reduction through education is now active in 45 states working operatively cooperatively co through a unique exchange of ideas plan each of these N C T C groups has asked its mayor to appoint a nonpartisan non partisan committee of citizens riffa rIf frfd I 1 fd public officials to survey the city ity comparing its methods and expenditures tures with those of other municipalities of like size while none of the surveys has been completed the nonpartisan non partisan groups are discovering financial methods which says mrs stone no thrifty housewife would put up with in her own household for example the mayor in a midwest city was discovered to have sold a 50 radio lor for to a paving contractor just before contracts were let because city officials neglected to pay their personal residential electric bills to the municipally owned plant another community is 1 in a serious financial condition all members of the school board of a small southern village as well as the tax collector were found by another survey to be ineligible for the positions they hold the survey reports according to mrs mucklestone will show where the taxpayers dollar goes the analysis will point the way to new economies for the surveys will be exchanged between cities so that one may benefit by the experience of others our members have no thought of demanding curtailment of essential services nor will reductions in taxes always follow reduction in waste mrs mucklestone says municipal services will however be improved and broadened so that the taxpayer will receive more for his money the N C T C which was founded two years ago conducts its educational cat ional work among the groups of civic minded women through the use of study programs which are prepared monthly at national headquarters they are submitted before distribution to a group of professors of political science and economics at eight leading colleges A group first studies the rudiments of local government and then progresses to such detailed subjects as centralized purchasing city planning municipal financing and efficient accounting high cost of illness shown by new report sickness of hospital dimensions not counting maternity and first aid cases cost patients about in the united states slates last year according to a current report of the american medical association the estimate on reports from hospitals which reported a total of patients whose illnesses cost an average of each I 1 J |