Volume 1

Modern management for the city of New York : report.

  • New York (N.Y.). Mayor's Committee on Management Survey
Date:
[1953?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern management for the city of New York : report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/898 (page 11)
    partments, unless activities are reduced, swallow up savings effected, unless gerv- ice cuts are made. The first natura] result of these management recommen- dations is increased expenditures to be followed in succeeding years by better management and greater return for the dollar spent; better protection of the public for the taxes paid, but few net dollar economies except in terms of the avoidance of expenditures which would otherwise have been required had the modern methods of management not been installed. This does not add up to immediate tax reductions, though it in no way justifies those City commissioners and employees who reject the Committee’s economy recommendations because more money will be required for other activities. Regardless of the amounts involved, the taxpayers have a right to insist that the economies be made, and that a genuine drive for savings is in order. The finance studies of the Mayor’s Committee covered the various aspects of this problem, including the present tax system, the transit fare structure, and Federai-State-local financial rela- tionships, and the Haig-Shoup Report has formulated a revenue program de- signed to meet the City’s needs over the next several years. Several studies of the administration of the City’s major taxes were also made, leading to recom- mendations which would considerably increase the revenues with no increase in rates. A separate study of the City’s debt and debt administration concludes that certain savings could also be made by changes in debt administration. One of the most important studies of the finance project concerns the existing ———$—$ ns budget system and budgetary and fiscal controls, and makes recommendations for improvement. As the City’s budget increases, and administrators are confronted with in- creasing demands for more services and benefits, the need for an adequate Sys- tem of budgetary and financial planning becomes ever more pressing. Adminis- trators and the public must be able to weigh intelligently the competing de- mands against each other and against the desirability of raising tax rates or initiating new taxes. The City’s budget system, devised 50 years ago to meet the needs and conditions of that time, is uot designed to produce the informa- tion necessary for such decisions and for intelligent public evaluation either of issues or of administrative perform- ance. The cure for this is a program budget. The conclusions of the Mayor’s Com- mittee on Management Survey as to the financial program are set forth in Vol- ume IJ, Chapter VII. The recommenda- tions for future taxes and revenues are presented as alternatives, inasmuch as the final decisions rest with the City and State authorities, rather than with the Committee. But the Committee em- phasizes that its recommendations on fi- nance must be regarded as a single inter- woven program involving: (1) a broad program of management reform; (2) an immediate program of economy; and (3) a long-range program of revenue and tax reform. Each element of this comprehensive program is dependent upon the other two. The program as thus presented rests on everything which follows in this volume. — In reviewing the revenue possibilities which are now open to the City, the Committee lists the following: