The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-06-24
Official Statement OF the Debt Of Louisiana.

Official Statement OF the Debt OF louisiana.
We have received from the Auditor
OF the State two documents Of great
Importance to the taxpayers of Louis
lana. One of these is II detailed state
ment of the debt Of the State, made up
to June LIST, 1871. The other is the an
nual budget of receipts and cXpcndi-
lures for the present year.
The Auditor claSsities the debts as
follows:
Outstanding bonds for which the State
is directly responsible. ..$l9, s.. 300 90
Bonds for which the State
may evesituaily he liable G,573,GS:; g;
Amount of bonded debt. 9:,,7ti. oS:s ,?
Miscellaneous obligations,
warrants, certificates etc :;,lS7 400 ~
Actual Nebt. So ,4Io, 4I:i 81
Bonds authorized by the
Legislature to be issued to
various railroad and other
corporations prior to adop-
ton of debt limitations,
hut not vet issued. l2,24i, 900 %
Prospective debt .......S4l ,l3l ,lI:i 81
Add deficit between re-
ceipts and expenditures
as per budget of 1S7l..... S,77s,6lS -
! Grand total. $40, 973, O92 O6
We have thus to face 4 debt which in
round figures may be stated ut fifty
millions of dollars, an increase Of forty
millions of dollars in less than six
years. Is any further commentary up
on our Radical state Government
needed:
| We are not disposed to hatter our
selves, as our contemporary the Plea
yune does in its issue Of yesterday,
that the contingent portion Of the debt
that is, the bonds issued, for which
the State is only eventually liable in
default Of others-may be regarded as
an obligation which will never have to
be discharged by the State. We wish
that it We're a prudent calculation thus
to white down this enormous burden
to twenty millions, as the Picayune
does. But our experience teaches us
that it is safest to count upon being
called upon to meet engagements like
these, and we think every business
man will concur with It's. The State
is now paying annually Il large sum OF
money in the shape of interest on bonds
which We're issued to railroad corpora
tons prior to the war, and which at the
time of their issue it was reasonable to
believe would either be regularly paid
by those corporations or compensated
to the State by dividends on stocks.
Certainly in these times of universal
corruption and bad faith, it would be
| imprudcnt to base our calculations on
the State being held harmless from
these eventual obligations.
The Supreme Court itself in deciding
the case of Solomon d Simpson versus
the State few weeks ago, took this
view of the question and included in
| its statement of the debt as existing at
! the time when the constitutional limit
was established, all contingent iiabili-
ties.
Accompanying the Auditors state
ment of debts and liabilities is the an
| nual budget of receipts and cNpcndi-
lures for the present year
| The expenditures for all purposes
/ are set down at the frightful sum
| OF Observation-Disclosures. S13, "a 1877 )
and the receipts from all
! sources are estimated at 4,76ill9 90
! Excess of expenditures
| over lptS.............. 50, 800 ,:I:'7 30
| Here is deficit of nine and Il quar-
ter millions of dollars in one year, for
which no provision seems to have been
made by the Legislature. How is it to
be met? Is not this condition ofthings
truly alarming? 1t is, indeed, high
time that a convention of the taNpay-
ers of the State should be held for the
purpose of devising measures to stop
this reckless squanlering Of Our pres
ent and future resources. We can only
liken orr condition financially, to a
ship at sea whose crew has mutinicd
and whose officers have been compell-
ed to yield up their command to men
who have broken into the spirit-rOom
and are mad with liquor, while the
ship drifts towards a Iee-shOre and is in
danger of being nOmentarily wrecked