The Trend in City Expenditures
| Author | Lane W. Lancaster |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271622411300104 |
| Published date | 01 May 1924 |
| Date | 01 May 1924 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
15
THE
TREND
IN
CITY
EXPENDITURES
prevention
and
treatment
of
communi-
cable
diseases
has
resulted
in
an
in-
crease
of
85
per
cent.
But
the
most
startling
development
of
the
last
decade
in
the
field
of
state
finance
has
been
the
rapid
growth
of
one
or
two
functions
which
were
so
in-
significant
at
the
beginning
of
the
present
century
that
they
were
almost
lost
in
the
long
list
of
state
expendi-
tures.
Chief
of
these
is
highways.
A
rise
of
364
per
cent
in
disbursements
for
highway
maintenance
between
1913
and
1922,
and
an
increase
which
must
have
been
nearly
1,000
per
cent
in
pay-
ments
for
road
construction,
go
far
toward
explaining
the
increased
cost
of
operating
our
state
governments.
This
is
particularly
true
when
we
remember
that
differences
due
to
a
growing
popu-
lation
and
to
an
increase
in
the
general
level
of
prices
have
been
eliminated.
The
rate
of
increase
would
otherwise
be
nearly
twice
as
great.
The
develop-
ment
and
conservation
of
our
natural
resources,
an
item
not
even
recognized
in
the
Census
Bureau’s
classification
of
state
expenditures
in
1913,
had
reached
the
surprising
sum
of
38
cents
per
capita
by
1922.
The
ultimate
result of
a
policy
of
conservation
is
to
save
the
natural
wealth
of
the
states,
but
its
immediate
effect
is
to
require
the
out-
lay
of
more
money.
It
seems
clear
that
there
will
be
no
considerable
reduction,
in
the
immedi-
ate
future,
at
least,
of
state
operating
costs.
The
people
are
demanding
more
and
better
services
from
their
state
governments,
and
they
are
re-
ceiving
what
they
ask.
Yox
populi,
vox
dei.
But
when
in
the
same
breath
they
demand
lower
taxes,
their
col-
lective
voice
loses
some
of
its
divine
quality.
Only
foolish
mortals
would
expect
to
pay
less
and
receive
more.
The
people
are
getting
better
roads
and
more
of
them;
they
are
getting
more
schools
and
better
teachers-but
they
are
paying
the
bills.
The
Trend
in
City
Expenditures
By
LANE
W.
LANCASTER,
PH.D.
Wesleyan
University
ONE
of
those
facts
which
so
strik-
ingly
illustrate
the
process
of
gov-
ernment
has
been
the
taking
on
by
pub-
lic
financial
questions
of
an
undoubted
&dquo;news&dquo;
value
during
the
past
few
years.
Facts
hitherto
buried
in
unat-
tractive
official
reports,
heeded
by
few
and
understood
by
still
fewer,
have
come
to
figure
in
the
headlines
and
to
receive
whole
columns
and
not
mere
paragraphs
of
explanation
and
com-
ment.
During
and
since
the
war
the
average
man
has
received
an
informal
educatiop
in
public
finance,
the
illus-
trations
of
which
have
been
drawn
largely
from
the
field
of
federal
finances,
For
figures.
of
debts
and
ex-
penditures
running
into
the
billions
catch
the
imagination
of
the
dullest.
The
trend
in
city
expenditures
in
re-
cent
years,
however,
has
also
been
significant
and
it
is
to
this
trend
that
attention
will
be
called,
for
we
are
justified
in
feeling
that
it
is
potentially
as
important
as
the
ephemeral,
if
huge,
transactions
of
the
Government
at
Washington.
RECENT
TENDENCIES
IN
CITY
EXPENDITURES
Several
criteria
exist
by
which
we
may
judge
of
the
recent
trend
in
city
expenditures.
There
are,
first
of
all,
the
figures
collected
annually
by
the
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