The Problems of the Cities:

...But although this solution fits our traditional concepts that government should be kept close to the grass roots, and that things which cannot be accomplished locally should be accomplished at the state level before turning to the Federal Government, in terms of practical reality the concept just doesn't hold up...

...His journey is a lonely one only in the sense that, very likely, no one else occupies his car...

...But if we examine this statement a little more closely, we find that its truth depends upon what taxpayers you are talking about...

...Since 1946, Federal indebtedness has risen by 5 per cent...

...In every major city in America the saturation point has been reached or is about to be reached on real-estate taxes...

...Industries and individuals may flee cities and states to escape paying taxes, but they will not flee the nation...

...This is in spite of the fact that the State of Mississippi has the lowest level of per capita expenditures for public services in the nation, and receives a higher proportion of Federal grants in relation to amounts of Federal revenue contributed of any state in the country...

...In the concerted campaign to cut down Federal spending by the White House, Budget Bureau, Secretary of Treasury, conservative Congressmen and many of our metropolitan newspapers, the impression has been created that cities are dodging their own responsibilities, and by requesting the Federal Government to finance their programs are thereby breaking the American taxpayer's back...

...Legislative districts set up in colonial times still exist, and since the sole power to change them rests with the state legislature itself, they will probably continue to exist for many years to come...

...The principal local taxpayer —the home owner—would pay more than 10 times more in increased real estate taxes than he would pay in Federal taxes for the equivalent Federal share of the program...

...funds to assist in the solution of some problem currently plaguing the city...

...He berates the city for its snarled traffic, its lack of parking space, its pitted streets, its teeming tenements, its crime and juvenile delinquency...

...To add to them merely deepens the dilemma of the cities, driving more and more property owners into the suburbs...

...But our wealthy suburbanite, who used to pay these property taxes to the city, now pays them to his suburban community...

...Here most people live...

...Giant undertakings have been begun to revitalize, restore and rebuild the heart of our metropolitan areas...

...A leading mayor argues for Federal aid as the answer to THE PROBLEMS OF THE CITIES By Richardson Dilworth ON THE AVERAGE weekday in America between the hours of 7 and 9 AM there takes place one of the great migratory movements which symbolizes our modern urban-suburban civilization...

...Our civilization, as we know it and as we want it to be, will survive to the extent that our cities are enabled to cope with problems incredibly complex...

...during the same period local taxes have been increased on an average of 40 per cent...

...The object, of course, was to lure business executives to bring their plants to Mississippi...

...These metropolitan areas are sociological and economic entities whose parts are completely intermingled and interdependent on each other, yet included in them are a hodge-podge of political jurisdictions crossing city, county and state lines...

...The problems of the cities can be solved...

...Airports, railroad commuter systems, bus terminals, highways, hospitals, universities, theaters, museums and libraries serve not only the city but the whole surrounding metropolitan area...

...But how are the municipal services to be paid for which must be provided if industry, commerce and culture are to exist in the city...

...during the same period state and local budgets have more than tripled...

...here is the arsenal of the cold war, both psychological and material...

...When he gets home, pours himself a stiff drink and settles down to the evening newspaper, he reads that the Mayor of the Big City is down in Washington pleading for Federal RICHARDSON DILWORTH views both urban, and suburban problems from his position as Mayor of Philadelphia...

...Without the industry and commerce which exist in the core city, life in the suburbs would wither on the vine...

...States which attempt to raise taxes in order to maintain a decent level of expenditures for vital public services soon find themselves abandoned by industry for states with a better "business climate...

...Within the next decade 80 per cent of our population will be located here...

...Today each of our states is engaged in a fierce competition for industry...

...To paraphase Lincoln's dictum that government must do for the people what they cannot do for themselves, the Federal Government must do for the cities what they are incapable of doing for themselves...

...Clearly it is not the Federal taxpayer, but the state and local taxpayer, who is under the greatest strain...

...The plain fact of the matter is that only the Federal Government possesses broad-based corporate and personal income taxes which will equitably yield the revenue required to maintain public services at levels of civilized decency...

...Even if the cities were properly represented in their state legislatures, however, the states would be severely limited in their capacity to provide the funds necessary to maintain the social and economic life in the cities...

...Businesslike procedures have been established...

...To the states, say the advocates of reduced Federal spending...

...Where then are the cities to turn to meet the mounting costs of municipal services and of renewing and rebuilding run-down municipal areas...

...It is interesting to note that a Joint Federal-State Action Committee, after meeting for four years on this subject, finally recommended that taxes on billiard halls and telephone bills be returned to the states...

...Most of this growth will be in the suburbs, but paradoxically the more the population soars in the suburbs, the greater the strain on the financial resources of the core cities becomes...

...Through Federal grant-in-aid programs we were able to shift some of the burden of payment to just those taxpayers—wealthy corporations and individuals—who also benefit from these programs but whom we cannot reach through local taxing powers...

...Corruption has been largely eliminated...

...But state and local debt has risen 309 per cent—or 62 times as fast...

...Our suburbanite business executive—senior or junior grade—hastily kisses his wife goodbye, throws off some passing words of advice or admonition to his children, eases himself behind the wheel of his automobile, and begins his lonely journey into the core city...

...The principal form of revenue available to the city is the real-estate tax...

...The problems of traffic congestion, air pollution, water pollution, urban deterioration, etc., are created not only by those who live in the city but also by the hundreds of thousands who pour in and out of it to earn their living or to partake of the products of civilization which can exist only in a city...

...Seven of every eight local tax dollars are still collected from the real property tax...

...Another statement, made so often and unchallenged for so long that it is now regarded as gospel, is that the taxpayers in the large industrial states are better off not participating in the Federal grant-in-aid programs because they send more money to Washington than they get back...

...There are thousands of him—in the Philadelphia area 175,000 every day, in New York close to 800,000—pouring in from every direction, fighting their way bumper-to-bumper over clogged streets and highways into the city...

...Suppose we were to forego Federal funds for urban renewal and finance the whole job locally...

...Taxes on billiard halls would probably not be enough to maintain the street lights on one major city thoroughfare for a year, and as Governor Nelson Rockefeller discovered to his dismay, the Federal Government reneged on its commitment to give up the telephone tax...

...Today more than 65 per cent of our population lives in our great urban-suburban metropolitan complexes...

...It presumably never occurs to him that, in a sense, he is responsible for much of the plight the city finds itself in, and that because he and thousands like him are contributing to the problems of the cities but not to their solutions, the cities are being forced increasingly to turn to the Federal Government for help...

...As he crosses the city line he heaves a sigh of relief...

...Most of our metropolitan areas cross one, and in many instances two or three, state lines...

...The cities themselves have taken giant steps on the path of progress...

...here our democratic way of life is being tested under conditions of great tension and stress...

...Professional and technical personnel have been attracted in spite of the fact that pay scales still lag behind competitive levels in industry...

...Today the frontier of our civilization lies in our great cities...

...Federal taxpayers have enjoyed several tax reductions, the last in 1954...

...The rural and suburban areas vent their spleen at the "big-city slickers" by shamefully short-changing the cities on state funds...

...Local taxes have been raised 40 per cent in the past decade...

...Another alternative, of course, would he for the Federal Government to relinquish to the states and cities some of the sources of revenue it now possesses...

...But again, without the labor market and purchasing power they represent, the suburban and rural dweller would lose his means of livelihood...

...In the evening the pattern repeats itself, and he fights his way out of the city to find solace in the suburbs...

...Financial resources have been strained to the utmost...

...In his place in the city has come a steady stream of unskilled, low-income people whose capacity for paying taxes is minimal, but whose need for municipal services is great...

...He probably lets out a howl of rage at the Big City which, not content with complicating his life during his working hours, is now out to duck its own responsibility for solving its problems by raising his Federal taxes...

...The State of Mississippi last year cut the top bracket of personal income tax from 6 to 3 per cent...

...For one thing, there is the matter of jurisdiction...

...Philadelphia, with two out of every 10 residents of Pennsylvania has only eight out of 50 members of the State Senate and only 34 out of 212 members of the House of Representatives...

...In the past decade, in spite of our increased national defense and international responsibilities, our Federal budget has increased only 12 per cent...

...Secondly, there is the matter of rural domination of state governments...