NEW BUILDING FOR SUPREME COURT, STATE OFFICES, ETC.
By the act of March 9,1867, the Governor was authorized to cause to be erected on ground belonging to the State, a building suitable and convenient for the use of the Supreme Court and officers of State, at a cost not exceeding fifty thousand dollars.
Shortly after the adjournment of the last General Assembly, a consultation was had between the Judges of the Supreme Court, State officers and myself, with reference to the dimensions of the proposed building, and the number and arrangement of the several apartments; and the plan adopted was conformed to their wishes in these respects. Specifications were prepared, printed, and extensively circulated so as to induce competition in bidding for the contract, and sealed proposals were invited by advertisements.
page: 17[View Page 17]There were quite a number of bids made, and the work was awarded to the lowest bidder at a price considerably below the limit fixed by the act before alluded to. My best efforts were made to observe literally the limitation imposed as to cost, and at the same time secure such a building as the wants of the public service required, and as would not be a reproach to the State in architectural appearance.
With the greatest possible care and the most rigid economy, owing to necessary changes in the original plan, and additional accommodations which were not thought of when the specifications were prepared, I was compelled to expend $2,101 55 more than the sum named in the act, and to leave the Supreme Court room in an unfinished condition. It will require a small appropriation to finish this room, and there should be provided a stone platform with iron railing, in front of the offices on Washington and Tennessee streets.
I trust you will cause the building to be examined by the appropriate committees, feeling assured that you will find that the money was prudently expended, and that the building is well adapted to the purpose contemplated by the General Aseembly. I have prepared a detailed statement of the moneys received and disbursed in the erection of the building, which I will submit with the contracts and vouchers, and such explanations as may be necessary, to the committees to whom the subject matter may be referred.
The act authorizing the erection of the building appropriated the sum of $40,000 to be provided by a loan of that sum out of the Sinking Fund. No provision was made for the obtaining of the money necessary to carry out the intention of the act beyond the $40,000 thus appropriated.
I was fully convinced that sound economy, and the safety of the public records, required that the building should be erected with the least practicable delay; and as this could not be accomplished without the necessary pecuniary means, the whole sum expended, namely, $52,101 55, was advanced by the Auditor of State out of the Sinking Fund, and a bond was given to that fund for the sum of $40,000 (part of the sum so advanced,) in pursuance of the requirements of the act. I respectfully recommend that an appropriation be made from the State Treasury of the entire amount so advanced, and that it be repaid to the Sinking Fund without delay, and that the forty thousand dollar bond given to that fund be cancelled. There is nothing in the condition of the treasury, present or prospective, to prevent such an appropriation; and although the matter escaped my page: 18[View Page 18] notice when the bill was presented for approval, and was, I suppose, also overlooked by the General Assembly in passing the bill, still it is essentially a law, authorizing a debt to be contracted on behalf of the State, and that debt is not for one of the purposes authorized by the Constitution. The Constitution declares that no law shall authorize any debt to be contracted on behalf of the State except in the following cases, viz : To meet a casual deficit in the revenue ; to pay the interest on the State debt, to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or if hostilities be threatened, to provide for the public defense. I, therefore, trust that the debt thus inadvertently authorized contrary to an inhibition of the Constitution, will be speedily liquidated by the necessary appropriation. It may be proper to add in this connection that the building has been occupied by the State officers and Judges of the Supreme Court since January, 1868.
