Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1853-07-20

CIefKS, &C, the aQQlIlOQaI sum
of $4,000 90
For the payment of Supreme and
Common Pleas Judges, Super ~-..
intendents of Asylums, clerks .....e
in the offices, Secretary to the
Governor, &c. 2l5,082 90
For the payment of the interest
on the foreign and domestic
debt, 1,o25,596 40
For the payment of the expen-
ses of the Commissioners of
the Sinking Fund, and for 9TH
er purposes, 770,574 90
For the prosecution of work on
the new State House, $4,000 90
For the payment of claims allow
ed to persons and corporations, 1896 rs
Total, $2,3I6,3l5 %
Two million three hundred and sixteen thou
sand three hundred and fifteen dollars and nine
cents is the amount appropriated by the last Leg
islature for the year 1853. By reference to the
Auditors report it will be seen that the amount
of taxes levied last year for State purposes was
$1,776,2s6 60, being s539,778 Al less than the
appropriations of last winter; consequently it has
become necessary to increase the State tax this
year in order to meet the increased expenditures.
We have examined the appropriation bills pass
ed by the last two Legislatures under the old
stitution, and find that the amount appropriated
then for the purpose of defraying the expenses of
the State government is but little more than half
of what is now required The expenses of the
State government enormous, and in order to
meet them the burden of taxation has been great
ly increased by the party in power. The truth of
of this declaration will be realized whom yet come
to pay your faxes.
AS the above article is going the rounds Of the
whig papers, and it's pretended facts are paraded
as evidence to support the charge of "extrava-
gance,'' Increased appropriations" and conse-
quently an 'sncrease of State taxi by the Legis
lature, we propose to show up its falsity and de-
ception. That instead of an increase of tax, for
State purposes, there is an actual diminuatioa,
which any school boy Of fifteen years, with access
to the official documents, might easily demonstrate
The following statements of tax for the last three
years, can be found in the Auditors office, or in
the State Auditors reports. In 1851, the last
year of Whig administration, under John Woods,
Auditor of State, the levies were as follows:
For principal and interest of
State debt, and expenses OF
the State government, 3 $40 mills
In 1852, the first year under Democratic ad
ministration, the leves were:
For principal and interest of State
debt, and expenses oft the State
government 3-10 mills
istration, the leves were: ...H
For principal and interest of State
debt, and expenses of State
government, 8 mills
In 1853, the present year, the levies
For principal and interest of Pub
lie debt, and expenses of State
government, 3 mills
Thus it is seen that the levies for State purpo-
ses the last two years, under Democratic admin
istration, three-tenhs of mill less, each gear,
than IN 1851, under the Wing Administrations
But further. Notwithstanding the levy for State
purposes in 1851 was three tenths of mill more
than it is this year; yet it did not even then pro-
duce sufficient revenue to defray the expenses of
the State government, and it became the duty of
the last Legislature to make provision for supply
ing the deficiency, which it did. Auditor Woods,
in his annual report to the Legislature, after stat
ing the amount of the deficit to be "t,0o hundred
and t,Oenty;fve thousand and twenty-five dolIars,"
says
tThe attention of the General Assembly has
frequently been called to this increasing deficit.
Had not the money subject to the control of the
Fund Commissioners been permitted to remain in
the treasury 10 meet this deficit, the bills for the
ordinary expenditures of the State government acotd
haze been protested"
Now we submit this question to every candid
mind: who have displayed the most financial tai
ent and economy! The Wings, who when nj
power levied three and three-tenths of mill for
State purposes, and yet were unable to raise suf-
fcient to deray the ''ordinary expenditures of the
and in few years create a deficit
in the grand revenue fund of $225,OOO, or the
Democrats, who have reduced the levy hree-tenths
of mill, and yet have ample means to pay the
interest of the State debt, large amount of the
principal of the same, and defray the ordinary as
we'll as the extraordinary expenditures of the gov
ernment, aOithout creating aaey deficit?
Now, is it not consummate impudence, in any
Whg editor, to charge upon the Democracy an
increase of tax for State purposes, or defray the
of governments 1t is true there is an
Increase for Common School purposes; every body
knows that, but not dollar of it, except the Lii
orary Fund, goes into the State Treasury. 1t is
retained in the counties in which it is collected,
and distributed amongst the townships to which it
belongs This tax alone is t,oo mills on the dol