The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-01-11
RAVENNA, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY II, 1860.


cal year. Levies already made on the Grand
List of the preceding year will produce the
former, and levies on the grand list Of the
current year of rates fixed or sanctioned BY
the Legislature itself vii produce the latter.
With given basis and given rates it Is eusy
10 compute revenue.
With these observations it seems proper
TO submit to you o suggestion more than
once addressed to your predecessors :--that
It is indispensable to every sound financial
system that appropriations be limited by rev.
enues. and expenditures by appropriations.
The arrangements which have sometimes
embarrassed our finances may be traced, al.
most invariably, in the absence Of crime, to
disregard OF this salutOTy principle. No.
thing but an overruling emergency can jus
tify appropriations. When so justified, the
appropriations in the former case should be
as promptly reported to the Legislature for
its judgment and sanction.
] embrace this occasion to suggest the ex
pediency of requiring, under suitable penal.
ties for omission, a Il officers having charge
of works or institutions, to state distinctly in
connection with each annual report, whether
any debts, beyond appropriations, were out.
standing at the close Of the year, and, II any,
their precise nature and amount. For all
such debts the officers contracting them are,
under existing laws, personally responsible,
and their payment, without express legisi.
tive sanction, out Of any subsequent appro.
printion, should be strictly prohibited. i,
In this connection / oIso renew my re-
commentator Of an appropriation for eqch
year of sum sufficient to provide against
unforeseen emergencies, subject only to the
of the Governor, to be drawn on
satisfactory evidence of necessities unexpect
edly requiring extraordinary expenditures
The public welfare would likewise be
promoted in my judgment, if the several Cffi
GERS 10 the Executive Department were or
gnnizeG as an Executive Council, and requr-
ed to meet from time to time, and whenever
by the Governor, for consultation
and action in regard to public interests
The sanction of such a Council to the dra ITS
on the contingent appropriation just propos-
ed, would constitute an ample guaranty
against mprovidence and abuse.
The whole amount of receipts into the
treasury during the last year, was $3,520,-
l54 and the balance from the preceding year
was $226.llS. The total sum subject to
in 1859, was $3.746 27a.
Or this sum $4,000 was realized from
drafts, in anticipation of the revenue of 1860;
s., ,939, ,733 were received from levies on the
grand list OF 1858, of one mill on the dollar
for Common Schools, one. tenth OF mill for
School Libraries, nine.tenths for Sinking
Fund, seven tWentieths for reimbursement
Of Temporary Loan, and seyen.tenlhs for gen
eral expenses OF State Government. These
levies, amounting in the aggregate to three
mills and eleven twentieths on dollar, rs.
sessed upon the taxuble valuation of $780,.
800 03l, exhibited by the grand list OF 1858
would have produced, if fully collected 49,.
9S5 $40. The difference between this sum
and the revenue actullly received at bout
forty.five thousand dolars-is attributed to
costs of collection, variations between de-.
unpaid and dolinquincies collec'
ted, and errors in assessment.
The principal source OF revenue, other
than evies, are Tolls and Water.rents on
the Public Works !; collections of Surplus
Revenue Proceeds OF sales of lands Con-
yet labor and Canal, Turnpike and Rail
road Dividends, Ofreceipts from these and
other sources besides levies, some, classed
in revenue, cannot properly be considered
as such. Proceeds OF Overwork OF convicls,
for example, and collections on old claims
and advsnces from contingent funds OF Elk.
ecutive Officers are not properly revenue
but either simpl deposits, or means made
money, or mere transfers from one account
to another. 1t is to be observed, moreover.
th,t more than the whole realized from al
sources, except levies, is either absorbed by
the expenses of the Pablc Works, and the
Peniten,iary, or specially appropriated to the
Sinking Fund for the payment Of interest,"
and principal of the Public Debt.
For the annual expenses OF the State ii
Education, for Benevolent Institutions, anc
for all departments Of the State Government
no substantial reliance can be placed on any
other sources OF revenue than the annua
levies.
The whole amount of disbursements dur
ing 1859, upon all accounts, was SO $50.
304, and the balance in the Treasury ut it
close was $l93276.
A more particular review of the severa
branches of collection and disbursement will
present, in still clearer light, the tinancia
transactions of the year. For the support o
the State Government and Institutions there
was collected during the year, from levie
on the Grand List, the sum of 1908 CAL
Receipts from licences and auction duties
from the Penitentiary from taxes on bank
and from claims collected, together with tn
balance at the close of 1858, increased thi
sum to 1884, lO7. From this sum severa
amounts, not properly constituting revenue
should be deducted, leaving the true sum 70
disbursement $S6S, ,75O Of this there wal
disbursed during the year $7s2,585. But al
the receipts did not exactly represent reve
nue., SO neither did the disbursements pre-
else " represent expenditures. For example
the sum OF 1868 AGO is charged os disbursed
when the real transaction was the placing o
old claims, nominully OF that amount, in th
hands of proper officers for collection; an
the eum of $9O,2OO was similarly charged
when the whole amount was paid, not .fo
general purposes, but on account of Publ
Works, under the direction OF your prede
cessors. The actual disbursements for tn
Executive, Legislative and Judicial depart
ments, and all the benevolent and reformu
tory State Institutions, including the PEN
tentiary were, therefore, $626 635. Th
balance remaining was $l0l,59l.
For the expenses OF the Public Work
there was received, from tolls and waite
rents on the Ohio Canal, $71,442 on tn
/ Miami and Erie Canal, $ll4,337; on th
Muskngum Improvement, $lS,274; on tn
Hooking Canal, $l7,30 +; on the Walhond
ing Canal, $475 +; OH the Western Reserv
and Maumee Road, $3,lsl on the Na.iont
Road, 1851 /; from sales Of canal landl
$516; and from other sources, $9.92l /
all, $246,7SI. The disbursements wer
396. .QS0 dollars, The apparent excess @