The New York Times said in an editorial on Wednesday , Jan. 1 :After struggling with entrenched mismanagement for more than a year and a half , the financial control board that effectively runs the District of Columbia has taken over the schools , ordered new accounting and personnel systems and cut about 3,000 jobs from one of the most bloated city governments in the country .About 1,000 more jobs will be cut soon .These extraordinary measures were necessary to stay within the spending limits mandated by Congress , and to convince the White House and a skeptical financial community that the District is committed to fiscal restraint .But the city can not cut its way to recovery .Fiscal health will require not only stringency at City Hall but also relief from a federal government that adds to the District 's burdens while restricting its ability to raise revenue .President Clinton signed the law creating the fiscal control board in the spring of 1995 , after years of mismanagement had brought the District to the edge of collapse .The board , under its chairman , Andrew Brimmer , has uncovered one financial scandal after another but has yet to achieve a full grasp of the tangled accounting and personnel systems that conceal the full extent of the city 's problems .New accounting systems should be on line within the year , allowing the board to make fine distinctions .For now , the cuts are being made almost blindly , as the board tries frantically to reach its targets .The reason that budget cuts alone will not save the city is that they do not address a deeper problem .The federal government saddles the city with all manner of debt while curtailing its ability to raise revenue .The federals occupy 41 percent of the city 's land but pay only a fraction of what the city would earn if the land were fully taxed .Congress further damages the city by forbidding it to levy a commuter tax on many thousands of suburban residents who work there , much as New York taxes workers from Connecticut and New Jersey .As a result , more than 60 percent of the income earned within the District goes untaxed .In addition , the District now has a $ 5 billion pension liability , most of it for workers who were regarded as federal employees until the city won home rule and took over an unfunded federal pension plan .All this greatly disheartens District residents , rich and poor alike .Though they pay some of the highest tax rates in the country , public services and the quality of life in many neighborhoods have declined .This has accelerated the flight to the suburbs , which in turn has further eroded the tax base and the capacity of the city to pay its bills and maintain a decent level of basic services .The control board is making headway where Mayors Sharon Pratt Kelly and Marion Barry have failed .But the federal government will clearly have to play a much more aggressive role .After all , the city at risk here is the the seat of that government .The District 's nonvoting representative to Congress , Eleanor Holmes Norton , has long urged the government to increase the pittance it pays the city in lieu of taxes .Ms. Norton has also urged tax relief for local residents and pleaded with Congress to permit a commuter tax , so that the city can capture revenue that most other cities regard as bread and butter .The federal government is right to withhold help until the city has its finances under control .But it must eventually provide more aid if the District of Columbia is to survive as a functioning city .