THE TREASURY SYSTEM.
In obedience to a request the Governor, by letter of September 6, 1875, to the Treasurer of State, being an administrative reform, putting the business of the Treasury into exact accord with the law of March l, 1859, accounting strictly for all appropriations and rescuing the trust funds from diminution and waste by the confusion of moneys, which had resulted in large losses to some of them. The elaborate reports of the Auditor and Treasurer for that year will show how much was accomplished in a few weeks by carefully tracking the requirements of a statute which had been neglected and despised for sixteen years. Five years more have served to so fix the system as a part of the executive machinery that it can hardly be removed. By the appropriation act of March 10, 1877, this work was recognized, and from that time forth, if not before, it could be said with truth that "no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in pursuance of appropriations made by law." By Section 3 of that act payments made during the first five months of the year, by virtue of any existing law, were "taken and accounted as an appropriation and payment for such part of the current fiscal year" as was covered thereby; all other appropriations were made to cease and determine on the taking effect of the act, and all persons intrusted with appropriations were required to make their accounts and reports conform to the fiscal years. Provision was then made with minuteness of detail, for the several branches of the public service, for the seven months from April 1 to October 31, 1877, and the years ending October 31,1878, and October 31, 1879. Having adjusted the accounts, under authority of Section 3 and closed them, and having, by appropriation accounts, credited each officer and institution with the amount that could be lawfully used, auditing was thenceforth a matter of simple subtraction from credit balances with a jealous eye upon that minus quantity, an overdraft, which is equally obnoxious to the Constitution and to safe private banking. Again, your predecessors, approving a rigid enforcement of the system, by an act approved March 25, 1879, made appropriations for the fiscal years ending October 31, 1880 and October 31, 1881. So much as relates to the former period has been almost entirely executed. The unexpended balances carried forward November 1,1879, amounted to $117,663.05. To this was added $1,230,278.67, authorized by Section 2 of the act of 1879, making $1,347,941.72. Under this authority payments amounting to $1,202,762.07 were made, leaving a credit balance of $145,179.65 (less $98.12 of overdrafts) to be carried forward, as required by Section 4, and added to "the same several amounts for the same several purposes" for the current year, with $12,900 more for printing and publishing the laws to be enacted by you. It is a curious anomaly in our State politics that those to whom the people of the State are most indebted for the unsparing analysis and simplification of its most important department business, after having laid bare and demonstrated its minutest details for inspection and legislative action, were among the first to receive the keen blade of the pruning knife, under guise of a false economy, and, as a non sequitur,be retired from the public service.
The reports of the Auditor and Treasurer of State constitute such a verified exhibit of the entire fiscal transactions of the State as will safely guide you in your examination and study of the several offices and institutions supported by public moneys. The Auditor of State reports,for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1880, a complete Statement of the revenues, taxables, funds, resources, incomes and property of the State known to his office, and of the public revenues and expenditures, with a detailed estimate of the expenditures to be defrayed from the Treasury for the ensuing two years. By the act of March 3,1877 "to levy an annual tax for the purpose of raising revenue," the annual levy ws fixed at twelve cents on the one hundred dollars of the value of all property, real and personal, as by law listed, assessed and valued for taxation, and fifty cents on each taxable poll. The proceeds of that levy, with delinquent taxed, docket fees and taxes otherwise collected, and amounts reimbursed by Counties, and received from Prison contractors, were sufficient to defray the expenses of the several departments and institutions in whose favor appropriations were made. The general fund had and received during the year $1,704,194,83, and disbursed $1,199-299.89. leaving, October 31,1880, $504,894.94. being a gain of $278,310.03, and $359,715.29 in excess of the unexpended balances chargeable thereon.
The total value of the taxable property was $728,944,231. The valuation of railroads, as equalized, was $38,442,941. The public debt was, at the close of the year, $4,998,178.34,not having been reduced during the past two years. Of the foreign indebtedness, certain internal improvement bonds, long past due, have been presented for payment, but are in litigation upon so much of the demand of the holder as relates to the interest, which should be paid. The interest charge upon our entire indebtedness was $293,008.81 in 1879, and $289.465.07 in 1880.
The Treasurer of State, in compliance with law, presents "a full exhibit and statement of all moneys received by him into and paid out of the Treasury, showing under separate and appropriate heads on what account or from what source received, and for what particular object or service the same has been paid out." You will be interested and insructed by the eleven tables, or statements, constituting an exhibit of remarkable clearness e to any tax-payer in the State. The last discloses the collections into the General Fund during five years past on account of the Benevolent and Reformatory Institutions in the sum of $266,613.75 This money was formerly paid over to the Institutions without the formality of a new appropriation, and its treatment under existing law carries it into the unappropriated funds of the State. If the appropriations during that period appear to be increased,this sum would apparently be saved to the State.
The Treasury statement for the month ending November 30, 1880, shows the cash in the Treasury at the close of business on that day to have been $1,010,995 14. The amount belonging to each particular fund is published as follows:
| General fund | $431,066 24 |
| Common school fund | 2,692 20 |
| School revenue for tuition | 254,462 19 |
| New State House fund | 295,532 50 |
| College fund, principal | 9,055 72 |
| College fund, interest | 654 43 |
| College fund,excess of bids | 24 14 |
| Swamp land fund | 1,025 52 |
| Unclaimed estates fund | 13,027 71 |
| Escheated estates fund | 1,365 97 |
| Sinking fund, excess of bids | 2,088 52 |
| Total | $1,010,995 14 |
I desire very earnestly to call your attention to the fact that the official bond required of the Treasurer of State, the custodian of this large sum of money, is in the penalty of $150000 only. Nearly twenty-two years have passed since the penalty was fixed. I suppose in 1852 $100,000. as then fixed, was ample security, and in 1859 the amount then required was proper; but the fact that an officer often holds more than six times the penalty to be paid, and rarely less than twice the amount, shows that our prosperity as a State has largely exceeded our provision of safeguards for our revenues.
