Budget makers put in the day slashing

              'Budget Makers Put In The Bay Slashing
Number of Outs Effected and Way Paved for Further Aiding City Finances.
MEMBERS HAVE SPAT
After cutting 863,731 from the estin^a^e's. of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbiir^v instructing   the   Pennsylvania  Association for the Blind to scaie down its requests i from $17,000 to $10,000, taking $300 from the j salary or Charles A. Finley, superintend- i ent of the Bureau of Water; lopping $1,100 j off the salary of superintendent of thej division of filtration   in the Water Bi^ reau, making some further smaller cuts ; and paving the way to request legislation to  put   jpon  public utility  corporations some of the burden of the taxpayers, and to procure for the city a proportion of the automobile and truck license fees now . kept entirely by the state, the city coun- 1 oilmen de.sisted from their labors temporarily with the feeling that they had dona pretty well for one day, at least. The Appropriations Committee will meet again at 9 a. m. today.
Bonds for Deficit. At the regular meeting of Council an ordinance was presented to issue one-year bonds totaling $810,000, at 4^4 per cent interest, to meet that amount of the deficit. The ordinance would pledge the city to levy a tax to pay the interest and principal of the bonds, which would be issued as of December 1, 1914, and mature on the same date in 1915. The ordinance was referred to the Finance Committee.
A good many thousands of dollars will be cut out of the 1915 budget, as it now stands, provided the Appropriations Committee continues in its plan of reducing the salaries of city employes to the figures they received in 1910, as in the above mentioned case of the superintendent oi the division of filtration. Sometimes it may rot be possible to get the .salary down to the 1910 basis, as in the oaso of Supt. Finley.
Mr. Garland has asked the Law Department to advise what city officials come under the provision which prohibits increase or decrease in their salaries during their term of office. Mr. Garrard thinks that there are about 32 men in this class. He will have this information to use at the conference, which he was asked to call to take up the matter of salary reductions.
Dr. (V. A. Dillinger has analyzed the budget, as It was presented by Mayor Joseph G�;.^rmstrong, and yesterday he present^* his finding to the Appr6pria-jjrbmmittee, refuting the accusation Duncilman J. P. Kerr that the had "overloaded and padded'' the Limates. " . . ,
Church Sends Letter. When the committee beg"an the morn in?.:, session the following letter from Col. S. H. Church, president of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Library, $ and as read:       and gt;
The. trustees" of'the Carnegie Library*haW wade'an estimate of the expense of running the Carnegie Library and branches in Pittsburgh for next year, amounting to $.':9�,000,;. a slight increase over the amount appropriated .for last year, and was. due to the 'natural expansion of the activities?
ir the main library and its various biariches. In view, however, of financial conditions exiplng not only in Pittsburgh but throughout the country, and the problem which this condition brings before the Council of Pittsburgh, I have this afternoon called a meeting of the executive committee of the Carnegie Library and we have all, recognized the necessity for severe retrenchments in our estimates the coming y ar. :��  ,
I would jtfst say that when in 1910 Council appropriates the sum of $235,000 for the use of the Wbrary, in that year it was found fcec�S�a*y�to reduce very largely its s and lt; and gt;rv*icj*%�"iM ifcoplQ.': have been told today tha^,8ttft to l^QQp children come into or ^.HSyfie brashes on Saturdays for tlie purpose of borrowing and reading books,
'Whitegeneral attendance at all the librapy' departments* is enormous and con-sianfiy growing. The influence of this substantial reading on a great community like tijMs is simply incalculable, and it would be Specially regrettable if any reduction in
, tlie estimates .should make it necessary to
" Ciose the branch libraries.
Library Estimates Reduced.
Councilman 33noch Rauh, who by virtue of his position as chairman of the Council Committee on Parks and Libraries, is a trustee of the Carnegie Library, said that it had been agreed, at a meeting on Monday of the executive committee of the board of trustees, that the estimates should be reduced to $235,000.   The
to 7.4. the same as 1914. Seven and four-tenths mills, the 1914 millage rate, would produce in cash during 1915 $4,669,000, on an �5 per cent collection basis. Adding to this the estimated miscellaneous receipts from other sources, $4k7O2,OO0, the total expected receipts would be $9,431,000, and to raise in cash, collections during 1915 the differences between this amount and the  and lt; estimates as they stand today, $11,112,000, or $1/981,060, would require a levy of 3.4 mills additional, or 10.54 mills not considering the 1914 deficit.
The $1,346,000 sh ortage #qnj and gt;1914%n and  and gt;' the .$1,981,000 shortage #l^li and ife%a^rfe-^ ceipts in 1915 on a 7.4 n*i41 'basisr^nsatti^f the total of $3,327,000 that rrjust      clt from the estimates as^tliey stand today, .if we are to make our current expense levy h4-rriills, as in 1914.   The current millage for^lglS,, Ofi the basis ^^^^^^^^ptl^lJ^lR^^ftand today; " Would be 10.54 mills for 1915 requirements,'plus 2.13 mills  for the estimated deficit at the., end of 1914, or a total estimated current expense levy for 1915 of 12.67 mills.
The present status of estimates for 1915 $11,412,000, ie approximately $1,-278,000 more than the appropriations for 1914. The appropriations requested for interest on damages, contracts, judgments and bonds, plus the amounts asked for sinking funds and payments of judgments, are approxi-
e.Mimates were $298,731, so that the cut mately $516,000 more than the,y were
amounts to $63,731.   The reduced sum is in mteavmg ^Vefo^
the same as the library got in 1910.   The "ems over 1914 of *762.000.
library;, budget was: returned to   Mr. Three Successive Deficits
Church for revision, as the amount avail- The expenditures actually made or
able has to be distributed among sal- estimated to be  made for 1914 are
aries,  supplies  and equipment.              , f^^^^J^X
The estimate of the Visiting Nurses' ^^nmeap^op?iations for 1914, by rea-
Ar.sociation was reduced from $2,500   to "n 0f the 11-month fiscal year, the
$2,100,  the same that it got last year, actual  requirement  for  salaries  for
A report of the nature of the work of the, �ne m0nth, however, being approxi-
association was requested.   The opinion mately $450,000, this being to a large
was expressed that the nurses employed extent the increase J^^^^J;?^^0/ by the city do work among the poor.
r.   Dillinger  wanted   to   know   't  It were not possible to take $179,000 from) , the total of the supplies of all depart ! ments, and the committee's accountants! ; were directed to confer with the direc-J tors  of  the  departments  on  the  ques tiDn.
:    Morrow's 1910 Salary Report. Controller E. S. Morrow submitted his report  showing  the salaries that were � paid to city employes in 1910.   His letter| j called attention "to the fact that in 1910! | the ordinance fixing the salaries of the} | employes of the Bureau  of Water had! j been found to be defective and a" new j one was passed; that a general ordinance' was adopted in June, 1910, increasing the(
CA UOUL U        Viiu       ----------
1915, due to the one month difference. This makes the 1915 request over 1914 not accounted for, approximately $312,-000 at the present status of the estimates.
Among the larger increases in requests,  as the appropriations  stand today, not previously considered, are: Bureau of police (101 extra patrolmen)  ..........................$103,000
Garbage and rubbish collections 36,000 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh..  48,000 Pittsburgh Playgrounds Association ................................  55,000
North Side Playgrounds Association...............................   8,000
Total ..............................$250,000
These increases very largely account for the increase in the ;�^f$J8jg 1910 estimates over 1914. � _ A1_ .      The cash receipts from current ex-
compensatio.n  of    draughtsmen  in   the    pense millage levies in 1912, 1913 and
Public Works Department from $100   to
1914, when added to the miscellaneous
$125 a month and that another ordinance!   receipts, have in no year produced the
tions^ by
authorized the director of the same de-| purtment to employ from time to time! 1 tfaeh mechanics, artisans and laborers j as he might require, and for the men i doing skilled labor current union wages j "w ere to be paid.    5
j Dr. Dillinger then referred to th�! j charge that the budget, as it had been) 1 handed to Council, was "overloaded and | padded," and said:
Some statements were made here last week about the budget which, without an explanation, could and have been, outside of this ^chamber, ttii|aonsteued- I have taken a great 'deal of iPai^|,-,i�t;liftakIng an analysis of the budget^.from JL910 Am*to the present ori$' W the |ol^r^p�^bjers of Council have not made a similar investigation,  I  ,
Dr.    Dillinger    read    the analysis:
As the estimates for 1915 now stand at $11,411,500, $3,827,000 must be cut out to iiring the, current expense millage
amount spent for that year, the shortage in 1912 being $544,000, in 1913 $431,-000, and in 1914 $1,034,000, a total of $2 009,000. At the beginning of 1912 there was a free cash surplus of $663,00*0, which has been applied during thes"e years to reduce, the millage that otherwise would have been necessary. This amount was reduced at the beginning of 1913 to. a surplus of $119,000, at the beginning of 1914 to a deficit of $312,000 and how reflects at the beginning of 1915 a deficit of $1,346,000 instead of a surplus of $663,000, as,at the beginning of 1912, as the total receipts for this period have been $2,000,000 less than the expenditures, Qn the basis Of the actual collections and expenditures of each year, the current expehse millage lld^have been 845 mills, in
thiaKi914' ^ and lt;^mi11�": and
following ^^aaiM^SFB�1^
notecr tnaf Tim.f!JniUa acti%liy levied in 1914 had the same effect as a levy Of 74 mills uu$ and t Vine 6I($ l and w,r due to thje reduction ,.o� the. rate'of ta�a-ation o'rf buildings; 1    '� * v