Commissioners Eye Budget Fund Shift for Traffic Control Work: Would ...
The District Commissioners are considering a bookkeeping m aneuver that would reduce a prospective budget deficit next year. Rut it could contribute to a slowdown in the cityÛªs highway program two years hence.</br></br>The idea is (o take about $3.2-million out of the DistrictÛªs highway fund next year and use it to help pay for police traffic control operations.'1</br></br>The highway fund, made up largely of gasoline tax collections, pays for most of the DistrictÛªs road projects. The Police Department is financed out of the CityÛªs general fund, which is fed mostly by other tax revenue, The general fund faces a $34 million deficit in (he budget proposed for the coming fiscal year.</br></br>Tlie Commissioners have authority to use highway fund money to pay up to 15 percent of the cost of uniformed traffic policemen.</br></br>This power has not been used for three years, largely because the District has not felt as serious a financial pinch ail it now is experiencing.