| Salaries | $678,117.55 |
| Supplies | 230,205.77 |
| Materials | 1,183,312.31 |
| Public works | 2,568.59 |
| Interest and sinking fund of debts | 343,600.56 |
| Notes overdue | 12,160.00 |
| $2,450,064.78 |
This is prima facie a valid obligation of the municipality, and should be funded. But before making a new loan for the purpose of paying these debts it would be only proper to have a court of claims established, before which all the creditors of the municipality could appear and definitely prove the amount of their claims and the date at which they accrued.
The debt question of Havana can not be disposed of lightly. In his instructive report on the municipal finances of Havana, General Greene gives it as his opinion that $12,500,000 is not excessive for a city of the size and wealth of Havana. Discussing the question with prominent financiers of Havana, the author found that these gentlemen agreed substantially with General Greene, some going so far as to declare the city could easily stand double the present debt, which would bring it up to $25,000,000. According to the last census, the only city comparable with Havana in the United States that carries a debt approaching this was Cincinnati, which had then a debt of $24,737,611. Cleveland, on the other hand, with a population about the same, had in 1890 a debt of only $6,143,206. The other United States cities of about the same population are respectively Pittsburg, debt, $10,026,806; Buffalo, debt, $10,843,029; Milwaukee, debt only $2,915,900; and San Francisco, less than $1,000,000 of municipal indebtedness. The debts of both Boston and Philadelphia were in 1890 less than $30,000,000. It will be bad financiering to burden Havana at present with more debt. When the budget is fully examined by expert accountants a large floating debt will be found, some of which it may be right and just to pay, and much of which is fraudulent. There will be long past-due gas bills, aggregating over $500,000; unpaid bills for street cleaning; salary accounts unadjusted, and a great variety of debts the validity of which may have to be tried in the courts. To meet current expenses the revenues of the city will have to be increased and honestly expended. Naturally, the city will have to bear its share of the important sanitary work which must be done in Havana, but as this work is for the general welfare of the Island, part of it may rightly be taken from the general funds. Judged from an American point of view, the municipal debt of Havana at the present moment is quite large enough, and great care should be taken not to increase it beyond the danger line.
The revenue of the city is derived entirely from licences and indirect taxation. Real estate is not directly taxed, and the municipality does not receive directly anything from it. The Island of Cuba imposes, among other taxes, a duty of 12 per cent. on the estimated rental value of all houses in the city and country, and it pays over to the city of Havana 18 per cent. of the amount thus collected on rents within the city limit. The Island of Cuba also levies a tax on industry, commerce, and professions, and it pays over to the city of Havana 25 per cent. of all such taxes collected within the city limits. The other sources of city revenue, which are directly collected by the municipality, are the rent of houses owned by the municipality, revenues of the waterworks, slaughter-house, and markets, taxes on meat, coke, and wood, licences on factories and business of all kinds, and various minor licences. The total estimated revenue for the year 1897-98 is slightly in excess of $2,000,000, and the principal items, taken from the budget, are as follows:
| 1. | Rent of houses owned by the city | $159,598.16 | |
| 2. | Special taxes and licences: | ||
| Street vendors | $15,000.00 | ||
| Slaughter-house | 163,000.00 | ||
| Water rents | 300,000.00 | ||
| Tax on pleasure houses | 12,000.00 | ||
| Tax on wood | 9,000.00 | ||
| Tax on charcoal and coke | 44,660.00 | ||
| Licence on factories | 26,000.00 | ||
| Licence on advertisements and signs | 8,101.90 | ||
| Sundry licences, etc. | 12,496.00 | ||
| 590,257.90 | |||
| 3. | Charities—Income of legacies | 4,000.00 | |
| 4. | Public Instruction—Income of legacies | 1,138.80 | |
| 5. | Public Correction—Income from shops, private cells, etc. | 30,638.42 | |
| 6. | Extraordinary Receipts: | ||
| Building permits | $29,000.00 | ||
| Fines, municipal ordinances | 6,000.00 | ||
| Special sewer tax | 50,000.00 | ||
| Replacing street openings | 22,258.57 | ||
| Licence on cedulas | 28,000.00 | ||
| Tax on business | 111,300.00 | ||
| Tax on meat | 663,000.00 | ||
| Special deposits | 20,000.00 | ||
| Sundries | 3,300.00 | ||
| 932,858.57 | |||
| 7. | Contributions by General Government: | ||
| Quota from real estate | $165,200.00 | ||
| Quota from industry and commerce | 206,700.00 | ||
| 371,900.00 | |||
| Total | $2,090,441.95 | ||
These receipts amount to something between $8 and $10 per head of a population estimated between 200,000 and 250,000.
The expenses of Havana are such as are common in every city, namely: expenses of the Mayor and Council (Ayuntamiento), police, fire, health, schools, charities, correction, courts, street cleaning, lighting, repairs and paving, interest, and sinking fund. There is only one unusual item, namely: a contribution of $100,000 towards the expenses of the government of the province. The items are shown in the following statement, taken from the budget of 1897-98:
| 1. | Council: | ||
| Salaries | 79,220.00 | ||
| Materials | 9,792.00 | ||
| Elections | 9,100.00 | ||
| Cost of collections | 49,500.00 | ||
| Sundries | 1,874.00 | ||
| $149,486.00 | |||
| 2. | Police: | ||
| Mayor, deputies, etc. | 43,060.00 | ||
| Salaries, municipal police | 99,470.00 | ||
| Materials | 3,650.00 | ||
| Fire Department | 13,974.00 | ||
| $160,154.00 | |||
| 3. | Urban and rural police: | ||
| Sundries | 806.00 | ||
| Street lighting | 134,589.50 | ||
| Street cleaning | 125,577.28 | ||
| Tree planting, etc. | 11,212.00 | ||
| Slaughter-house | 20,149.50 | ||
| 292,334.28 | |||
| 4. | Schools: | ||
| Salaries | 53,452.00 | ||
| Materials | 13,890.00 | ||
| Rents | 28,904.90 | ||
| Sundries | 300.00 | ||
| 96,546.90 | |||
| 5. | Charities | 177,308.80 | |
| 6. | Public works: | ||
| Salaries | 22,270.00 | ||
| Labor, repair streets | 170,000.00 | ||
| Material, repair streets | 12,200.00 | ||
| Sundries, repair streets | 4,500.00 | ||
| 208,970.00 | |||
| 7. | Corrections—Prisons | 78,683.50 | |
| 8. | Trees | 1,000.00 | |
| 9. | Justice and Legal Credits: | ||
| Interest and Sinking Fund | 676,195.00 | ||
| Provincial expenses | 100,000.00 | ||
| Repayment special deposits, etc. | 26,950.00 | ||
| Litigation | 11,000.00 | ||
| Street condemnation | 5,000.00 | ||
| Subsidy in harbour works | 5,000.00 | ||
| Sundries | 9,013.47 | ||
| 833,158.47 | |||
| 10. | New Works: | ||
| Ditches and Drains | $45,000.00 | ||
| Subscription private Fire Department | 2,400.00 | ||
| 47,400.00 | |||
| 11. | Contingencies: | ||
| Public Calamities and unforeseen contingencies | 45,400.00 | ||
| Total | 2,090,441.95 | ||
The current annual estimated expenses of Havana, according to the printed budget, which the author has had translated for 1897-98, were $2,090,441.95, and the revenue, of course, is made to balance. This looks all right on paper, but it is exceedingly doubtful that the present authorities will find the real facts corresponding with these figures. The items that are excessively high are moneys spent for salaries, for office of mayor, for gas, for street cleaning, for charitable institutions, for paving, and for contingent expenses. By “excessive” is of course meant excessive when compared with what the city receives for the money thus expended. The officials do little or nothing for their salaries, the gas is wretched and intolerably expensive, the streets are not cleaned, only the vilest patchwork in the way of paving has of late years been done, and the charitable institutions, so called, are in a miserable and filthy condition. In spite of this, the city of Havana is mulcted to this extent for these purposes: