Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-01-07

portion of taxes, they constitute the real
legislatures. Too much care cannot be ex-
ercised in the choice Of citizens to fiji these
important positions.
To ensure the safest and most Beneficial
workings of our financial system it seems
desirable that assessment, levy, collection
and disbursement be brought as closely to-
gether as possible. / can see no good rea-
son why assessments may not be equalized,
levies determined, and duplicates prepared
during the last quarter Of the fiscal year
This would bring levies into close proximity
with collections and ensure the most exact
proportion possible between values and taxes.
Nor do / perceive why County Treasurers
collecting revenue for the State should not
be required TO report their collections at
brief intervals in the same amer as the
collector en- canals, and hold them subject
to the draft of the Comptroller, or why their
final settlements with the State Treasurer
should be delayed TO the late day now de-
signated by law. Il
Each years income should, as nearly as
practicable. pay each years expenses, and
no money should remain in the Treasury
except what is needed for current disburse-
ments. The act passed at your late session
providing for the semi-annuaI collection of
taxes was, in my judgment. a wise step in
the right direction, and / am glad to know,
has given general satisfaction IN its practice
al operation. The act authorizing drafts by
the Comptroller upon the County Treasur-
ers, for the taxes collected in December,
just past, in order to their application to
payment of the interest due on the first of
the current month, was another step towards
the same end. Justly obnoxions to eehsuFe
as was the practice of collecting from the
County Treasures by similar drafts. in adj
vance of their regular settlements, large
sums TO be added TO large balances already
in the Treasury. or to supply the place of
large balances fradulently abstracted, Is can
now hardly admit of question that our safest
future policy will be to pay our January in
terest from the December and our July in
terest from the June collections. As far as
possible, also, the first two quarters oil each
fiscal year should be betrayed from the for
mer, and those Of the two last quarters from
the latter collections. / recommend such
legislation as may be deemed necessary to
give practical effect to these suggestions by
providing for the prompt payment into the
State Treasury of the States proportion Of
taxes as soon as collected. and requiring
earlier settlements by the County Treasur-
ers with the State Treasurer. Such legis-
lation would enable the Auditor of State to
lay before the General Assembly, ut an early
day in each session, a statement of the ac~
tual receipts from taxes in December, and
the estimated receipts in June rs well as OF
the actual and estimated receipts from all
other sources during the year, and this state
ment would supply a basis for economical
and intelligent appropriations for the en-
suing ~three-quarters of the current and the
first quarter of The next fiscal year.
A judicious law prescribing rates of levy
will tend to insure moderation in taxation;
the payment of current expenses from cur
rent income will prevent the evil of accumu-
lation in the Treasury; the restriction OF
appropriations 10 actual receipts, and of ex-
Penditures to appropriations will r~estrain,
the former, legislative, and the latter, ad-
ministrative extravaganza. These, in my
Judgment, are the essentials Of a good Fl
nancial system.
Under scch a system the custody of the
public revenue would involve far less hRzz 1rd
than heretofore. Still under any ss stem,
while collections from taxes for all purposes
State and local, cannot be expected soon
TO fall below four millions, and may exceed,
rs in 1854 and in the present year four mil
lions and a half semi-annually. of which a
moiety will not be required for disbursement
until some time after collection and a por.
ton will remain for six months or more, the
1OirK nf oyss1du ,rsI ..r,.; .,o 81 --,os
Importance.
The safe keeping of the public money
therefore, properly engaged a large share of
the attention of your immediate predeces-
sors, as well as of your own. The chic
essential point OF difference between the
modes adopted seems to be that the latter
while requiring ample securities from de.
positaries for payment on demand, did mol
contemplate the withdrawal of moneys de-
posted from the transactions OF business,
until wanted for public purposes. while the
latter seems to intend The actual keeping oil
all public moneys in the hands OF State and
County Treasurers until required for DIS
bursement in discharge of public obligations.
If the safety OF the public moneys is equal
ly insured by either mode, the former ap-
pears 10 be entitled TO preference; for mo-
ney is machinery, whose work is exchange,
and it is obvious that the withdrawal from
use Of considerable Gums for considerable
periods must in some measure interrupt and
embarrass the operations of business. But
safety is the paramount consideration, and
no mode of custody is admissible which does
not secure il Us fur as il can be secured in
any mode.
In a former communication | thought it my
duty 20 recommend to your consideration a
plan for the safe keeping and disbursement
of the public moneys, which seemed to me
to combine security with convenience
That plan failed 10 commend itself to your
approval; but you did not omit To establish
by law a system of regulations, intended
to accomplish the same general purpose
Few measures ful6l perfectly the designs
of their authors; and seine defects have be-
come apparent in the practical workings of
the act of last session to which | think
proper TO direct your attention.
The act itself was doubtless designed to
incorporate into the administrative system
of Ohio, the leading provisions of federal
legislation Oh the same subject. There are
however among other differences between
The Federal system and that which has been
thus ~iDaugufated in our own State, two of
which seem to me especially worthy of
consideration Under the Federal laws all
officers having custody of public money are
appointed by Federal Government, and are
required, from time to time to give such
bonds, with such securities as the Federal
authorities may require. Under the act OF
last session the County Treasurers through
out the State are made deposi.aries of the
State as well as the County revenues; of
| the reuannes derira1 frnn can.l ILL .-L