Public expenditure

“ On the other hand, the increase of the developmental expenditures must, if wisely directed, be a clear national gain. The facts can only be surmised from the general statements of public expenditure which are classified statistically by administrative departments rather than by classes of expenditure. ”

“ For want of a due degree of this responsibility, the public expenditure of the present age,—determined chiefly to the sustaining of burdens imposed by a preceding age,—perpetuates many abuses: and, though much ameliorated by the less unequal distribution of power, the public expenditure is yet as far from being regulated to the greatest advantage of the many, as the many are from exacting due responsibility and service from the few. ”

“ Now, however, when the public expenditure is about to be vastly increased, and when it will be for the first time really felt by the people, it will become the first duty of our rulers to study the extent and true character of our resources, and to adjust the burdens of taxation, with all practicable fairness, to the respective capacities of all classes and interests. ”

“ Besides the general construction (if the phrase may be allowed) of our government, adapted at all times to the purpose of checking excess as well as abuse in its expenditure, there should be an occasional adoption of enquiry to suit particular cases and particular departments. This mode is rendered indispensible from the complication, as well as the novelty, of many articles of public expence to which important and critical periods give rise ”

“ Of almost equal importance is the rule that the utmost return is to be obtained for the given outlay. The canon of economy is as fundamental in regard to public expenditure as it will appear, later, to be in respect to revenue. Just application of the outlay of the state, so that no class receives undue advantage, and the use of public funds for “reproductive,” in preference to “unproductive” objects, are evident general principles whose difficulty lies in their application to the circumstances of each particular case. ”

“ The first problem on this side of expenditure is the due balancing of outlay by income. The financier has to “cover” his outlay. There is, further, the duty of establishing a proper proportion between the several forms of expenditure. Not only has there to be a strict control over the total national expense; supervision has to be carried into each department of the state. No one branch of public activity is entitled to make unlimited calls on the state’s revenue. ”

“ The principle of comprehensiveness requires that the budget cover all government agencies and
institutions undertaking government operations, so that the budget presents a consolidated and
complete view of these operations and is voted on, as a whole, by the body vested with national
legislative authority.
The principle of unity requires that all government resources be directed to a common pool to be
allocated and used for public expenditure according to the priorities of the government. ”

“ The soundest maxims of public policy and the principals upon which our republican institutions are founded recommend a proper adaptation of the revenue to the expenditure, and they also require that the expenditure shall be limited to what, by an economical administration, shall be consistent with the simplicity of the Government and necessary to an efficient public service. ”

“ The great advantage of the new budget system is that it enables Congress to make a comprehensive plan of expenditure for the year and thus to hold the expenses within the estimated revenues.
Is it necessary for governments to borrow? Public Debts: Why Governments Borrow Money.—Nearly all nations, states, counties, cities, and even villages have debts. Why do they find it necessary to borrow money? Why should they not, like wise individuals, adopt a pay-as-you-go policy? ”

“ Among other advantages derived from the labours of the Committees of Finance, the public is accurately informed of the burthens upon it, and bow every part of its income is dispofed of. Hence we are enabled to state, with precision, the charge incurred by pensions and sinecure employments, and to compare that with the whole of the revenue, which it appears to be desirable should be done, as many well-intentioned persons have taken an impression, that if all those were put an end to, the public might be relieved from a considerable proportion of its burthens. ”

“ The public expenditures, from the dearness of every thing, necessarily became immense; greater in proportion than in other countries; and much beyond any revenues which the best concerted scheme of finance could have extracted from the natural funds of the State. No taxes, which the people were capable of bearing, on that quantity of money which is deemed a proper medium for this country (had it been gold instead of paper) , would have been sufficient for the current exigencies of Government. ”

“ Writers on the theory of Public Finance seem to conceive the subject as though it were primarily a matter of equity in taxation and economy in expenditure. But to a Chancellor of the Exchequer finance is eminently practical with a problem to solve, namely, how to bring about an equilibrium in the Budget. ”

“ The average expenditure per capita for that period, was two pounds, seven shillings and seven pence, or about twelve dollars in gold, with a slight tendency to decrease each year. In our own country, commencing with 1830 and taking the years when the census was taken, I find that the expenditures, per capita, exclusive of payments on the principal and interest of the public debt were as follows:
or, excluding pensions, three dollars and fifty-two cents. No doubt this test is valuable. But how shall it be applied? Shall the increase of expenditures keep pace with the population? ”

“ The principal causes which have operated at this time to produce this great difference are shown in the reports and documents and in the detailed estimates. Some of these causes are accidental and temporary, while others are permanent, and, aided by a just course of administration, may continue to operate beneficially upon the public expenditures.
A just economy, expending where the public service requires and withholding where it does not, is among the indispensable duties of the Government. ”

“ All agree that it is a matter legitimately, if not exclusively, within the scope of separate State jurisdiction, and all are equally agreed that great and valuable improvements could be made within our State at a comparatively moderate expenditure of the public funds. ”

“ The budget should, among other things, show budgeted revenues, expenses, profits
or loss, capital expenditure, cash flows, borrowings, grants, transfers, contingent liabilities
including guarantees, and balance sheet. Any amendments to the budget shall also be
submitted to the Minister for Finance for review and approval. The Minister of Finance shall
respect the operational independence of public corporations. ”

“ We believe that the expenditure of public funds cannot be wisely and economically controlled unless those who have the disposal of public money are made responsible for raising it as well as spending it. ”

“ The public expenditures should be economical, and be confined to such necessary objects as are clearly within the powers of Congress. All such as are not absolutely demanded should be postponed, and the payment of the public debt at the earliest practicable period should be a cardinal principle of our public policy. ”

“ When we contemplate the ordinary annual augmentation of impost from increasing population and wealth, the augmentation of the same revenue by its extension to the new acquisition, and the economies which may still be introduced into our public expenditures, I can not but hope that Congress in reviewing their resources will find means to meet the intermediate interest of this additional debt without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this object only the ordinary progression of our revenue. ”

“ The methods of appropriations are similar to those employed by the
Federal government.
The expenditures of the local bodies, and particularly cities, are much larger, in proportion to their population, than those of the States, and are increasing at a greater rate than the increase of population. The objects of expenditure are numerous and very important. The chief ones are: (1) Interest on local debts; (2) maintenance and care of the streets and roads; (3) lighting of streets; (4) police; (5) salaries of officials. ”

“ Thus public works even of doubtful utility may pay for themselves over and over again at a time of severe unemployment, if only from the diminished cost of relief expenditure, provided that we can assume that a smaller proportion of income is saved when unemployment is greater; ”

“ Nothing is easier than the expenditure of public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody. ”

“ It may be stated broadly that nearly £15,000,000 of the expenditure of the central government for education, for the post-office, for inspection of factories, and for the miscellaneous purposes of civil government, is entirely new as compared with fifty years ago. So far as the expenditure is beneficial, the masses get something they did not get before at all. ”

“ As I am pledged to economy in my requests for funds, so you are pledged to economy in the expenditure of the funds which may be granted by Congress. No longer are the funds appropriated by Congress regarded as the minimum amount which is to be expended. Every dollar that is saved by careful administration adds to the amount by which taxes may be reduced in the future. It is practical economy which I have in mind and which we must practice. ”

“ In his report to the Congress the Secretary of the Treasury considers all these questions at length, and I ask your attention to the report and recommendations.
I call special attention to the need of strict economy in expenditures. The fact that our national needs forbid us to be niggardly in providing whatever is actually necessary to our well-being, should make us doubly careful to husband our national resources, as each of us husbands his private resources, by scrupulous avoidance of anything like wasteful or reckless expenditure. ”

“ I flatter myself that the exhibition thus made of the condition of the public administration will serve to convince you that every proper attention has been paid to the interests of the country by those who have been called to the heads of the different Departments. The reduction in the annual expenditures of the Government already accomplished furnishes a sure evidence that economy in the application of the public moneys is regarded as a paramount duty. ”

“ It is believed that after the heavy expenditures required by the public service in the present year shall have been provided for, the revenues which will accrue from that or a nearly approximate rate of duty will be sufficient to defray the expenses of the Government and leave a surplus to be annually applied to the gradual payment of the national debt, leaving the proceeds of the public lands to be disposed of as Congress shall see fit. ”

“ The Federal and local taxes of the last eleven years, according to high authority, amount to not less than $7,500,000,000. Never in modern times was revenue collected in such a complicated and ruinous manner. Mr. Curtis tells us one-fourth of the revenue is lost in the collection. If the collection and expenditure of revenue be the tests for determining the wisdom of a government, then ours is not "the best the world ever saw."
Extravagant expenditure is closely connected with enormous revenues. Economy of administration is a lost art. ”

“ With taxes mounting in all the subdivisions of government, the time has come for a veritable searching of heart with regard to the cost of the public service, and new demands should be most carefully scrutinised in the light of this problem of dollars and cents. ”

“ The cost of government in this country, particularly that of local government, is causing considerable concern. The aggregate expenditure of federal, state and local government is approximately twelve or thirteen billion dollars annually. Of this sum the Federal Government spends approximately one-third, state governments about thirteen per cent, leaving considerably more than one-half as the cost of local government. ”

“ The body having national legislative authority has the right to reallocate proposed
spending and to reduce the total amounts in the federal budget. It also has the right to
propose an increase in the overall amount of expenditures to the Council of Ministers
if necessary, and provide notice of this proposal to the Minister of Finance. ”

“ The provincial budget must comply with national legislation as envisaged by the national Constitution with respect to its form, when it must be tabled, the identification of the sources of revenue and proposed expenditure. ”

“ The rapid increase of our country in extent and population renders a corresponding increase of expenditure to some extent unavoidable. This is constantly creating new objects of expenditure and augmenting the amount required for the old. The true questions, then, are, Have these objects been unnecessarily multiplied, or has the amount expended upon any or all of them been larger than comports with due economy? ”

“ In such countries, the government may take any moderate portion of the capital of the country and expend it as revenue, without affecting the national wealth: the whole being either drawn from that portion of the annual savings which would otherwise be sent abroad, or being subtracted from the unproductive expenditure of individuals for the next year or two, since every million spent makes room for another million to be saved before reaching the overflowing point. ”