THE MOST EXPENSIVE CITY IN THE WORLD. 19 



nue to the city that is insignificant, the total collected rarely exceed- 

 ing $300,000 a year. 



The gradual reduction of the city debt, except as it is main- 

 tained or increased by additional bond issues, is amply provided 

 for by a steadily increasing and protected sinking fund. The total 

 receipts of this fund in 1899 were $15,601,492.50. The Croton 

 water rents, amounting last year to $4,590,502.55, are applied to 

 this fund, as well as the dock and slip rents of $2,362,421.14. 

 Some of the other chief items of this fund are: Revenue from 

 investments, $3,573,519.34; ferry rents, $370,776; market rents, 

 $251,500; interest on deposits, $520,526; installments included in 

 the budget, $2,633,110. 



More than $1,000,000 is derived annually from miscellane- 

 ous sources, including the sale of various odds and ends of prop- 

 erty. The total interest charges on bonds in 1899 amounted to 

 $11,275,822, leaving more than $4,000,000 of the sinking-fund 

 income applicable to reduction of the funded debt. 



Two features of the financial system of New York that increase 

 expenditures can and should be changed. Taxes are now collected 

 in the last quarter of the year upon an assessment made twelve 

 months before. This compels the city to borrow large sums of 

 money to meet current expenses. In 1899 the city borrowed, in 

 anticipation of taxes, the sum of $48,027,450, on which the interest 

 amounted to $755,704. If the taxes were collected during the 

 first quarter of the year, the city would not only save this three 

 quarters of a million dollars interest on temporary loans, but for 

 six or seven months would have large cash balances in depository 

 banks earning two per cent. This change would be worth approxi- 

 mately $1,500,000 a year to the treasury, but it must be made by 

 degrees in order that taxes shall not be collected twice in a twelve- 

 month. 



Under the present constitutional restriction upon the borrow- 

 ing capacity of the city, New York is placed in the contradictory 

 position of getting richer and poorer at the same time and by the 

 same process. The restriction of the debt limit to ten per cent 

 of the taxable real estate is arbitrary, and makes no distinction of 

 obligations. Every time the city acquires additional real estate 

 for parks, docks, schoolhouses, or any other purpose its borrow- 

 ing capacity and income from taxation are reduced, because the 

 property acquired no longer yields a tax and it is not counted in 

 the valuation upon which the debt limit is fixed. This is the 

 most illogical and unbusinesslike feature of the present financial 

 system. 



The piers owned by the city are profitable investments, yielding 



