This report details the findings of an investigation into the financial practices of the city of Chicago. Merriam and his team analyzed data on city revenues and expenditures to identify areas where improvements could be made to increase efficiency and reduce waste. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Report on the Municipal Revenues of Chicago The purpose of this inquiry is to present as clear a statement as possible regarding the local revenues of Chicago; to show what the sources of our local income are, by whom they are collected, and in what manner. How this revenue, when raised, is expended, whether wisely or unwisely, it is not the purpose of this investigation to inquire. This examination extends only to the side of revenue or income, with some incidental reference to expenditure. The scope of this inquiry is not limited, however, to a mere description of the present system or systems, but includes also the analysis of defects in the system, whether these are due to the action or inaction of the administrator, the legislator, or the constitution-maker. It is also a part of the work to point out additional sources of revenue that might be utilized if it were desired to expand and develop the municipal revenue system. The discussion is divided into four parts. Part I traces the his torical development of our revenue system from 1871 down to the present time. Part II contains a series of tables comparing the revenue and expenditures of Chicago with those of the four largest American cities - New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Boston (and also Toronto) - and with London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Glas gow. It contains also a. Description of the sources of revenue and the revenue machinery in each of the cities enumerated. Part III is an analysis of the revenues of Chicago. It contains, in the first place, a series of tables showing the revenue, expenditure, and debt of each of the eight principal taxing bodies. Then there follows an examina tion of the various kinds of revenue, taxes, municipal industries, licenses, departmental receipts, special assessments, public-service privileges, state grants, and miscellaneous. Part IV, or the Appen dix, contains material calculated to suggest new sources of revenue. It is made up of a discussion of the separation of state and local sources of revenue, the habitation tax, and the business value assessment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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