The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-12-06

LIE EHquTei,WulCu strongly uepreCatSu
the action of the General Assembly year
ago for interfering with its favorite funding
scheme Of the previous year, now raises
tho despairing cry, Where is the money
coming from ?" Had not the Legislature, at
its last session, put stop to the financial
folly of its immediate predecessor. this cry
Of our contemporary would have come
up ten times more despairingly than
it now does. While the action of the
last session was not by any means
what we could have wished, it was
in the direction of the reforms we had
indicated, and was ameliorative enough to
save the State from immediate bankruptcy,
or from o worse fate still, that Of being
handed over to the tender mercies of the
Wall-street shysters who make their living
out of the financial distresses of states,
municipalities and other corporations, just
as tho carrion-crow feeds on what is in
evitable in state of physical corruption
and decay.
We could hare wished that the reports
of the several State officers who have the
absolute custody of our financial matters,
had been a little more explicit and COM
plete in their tabular statements, SO as to
show what proportion of the public credi-
tors had come into tho arrangement of the
last session, and accepted their interest
under the notifications put upon the fund
ing bill. 1t is only BY somewhat doubtful
and suppositious figuring that one can
arrive at any satisfactory conclusion on
this important point Of inquiry, and we
shall only try our hand upon it
in way to reach general rather than spe-
ciGc results. What we desire to show our
contemporary, as well as the reading pub
lie generally, is the precise financial condi-
ton we should have been in had the fund
ing bill iniquity been carried out in the
strict letter Of the act, as the Enquirer
persistently demanded it should be. For
this purpose we take, as starting, point.
the official report from the Second Auditors
Office made year ago. saa
The public debt as then reported was
set down in round numbers at S4S, 900, 900.
Deducting from this one-third de.
ferred West Virgnia) ........."... SIC 200 900
! 1t left amount to be funded at six
per ...""."...."........". ss2oOo,oo,
Interest at six per cent. on $50 900. 81 92OUOo
Expenses OF government estIna led. l,i00 100
| $3,o-0,U0
Against this the Second Auditor arrayed
the annual receipts Of tho Commonwealth
from all available sources, showing that
they would reach, after deductions for over
valuations allowed by courts, etc., the sum
of 81 ,s76, 257.s2; thus leaving probable
deficiency at the end of the fiscal year of
sl,143,742.18.
This was the best financial showing thai
the State could then make, under the fund.-
ing-bill as perfected by the legislation of
lS70-71. But, fortunately, the receipts
INTO the State Treasury from back taxes
and some other sources of revenue evident
ly not included in the Second Auditors
estimates, reached the sum ofs2, Jag, 1857,
OF sum exceeding the estimates by $780,
O17.75; so that the actual deficit in re-.
sources would only have been ss73, 724. 43,
provided the expenses Of the State had been
Kept scitl,n the limit estimated by the auditor.
But it appears from the Treasurer's re.
port that the amount actually disbursed on
account Of the Commonwealth, indepen-
IDENTIFY of the interest paid on the public
debt, and on account of the literary and
sinking funds, was 81, l65, 432.46, or $780,
1926 in excess of the Second Auditors
estimates. This added to the estimated
deficiency of that officer, as made in his
last annual exhibit and reduced by excess
of actual receipts, would, or should, give
the precise deficit N resources, amounting
to $3.50, 1859, such as they would have
been had the funding bill iniquity
not been partially nipped in the bud OF the
last session. In other words, the State
would have been without a dollar in the
treasury, and with an accumulated expense
debt Of nearly n million dollars on its
hands to provide for as best it could at the
present session. The action of last year
has enabled the State to escape this finan-
cial disaster, and its legislation at the pres.
ent session should be directed to on avoid
ance of the evils from which we have only
p trtially escaped, as it is.
] ------------------ gr.
| Hon. JAMES Ii. PLATT made yigor.