Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-06-10
Our State Finances.

Hon. Thos J. Heating, comptroller, and
Hon. Barnes Compton, treasurer OF the State,
on Monday last addressed a communication
to the people Of Maryland, giving clear and
concise statement of the financial condition
of the State. This was rendered necessary
by the attack of Gov Hamilton upon these
officers and the General Assembly, made at
the Maryland Institute, Baltimore, a few
days ago. They fully dispose of the grave
charges made by the Governor and his small
following. The Baltimore Gazctte, of Mon
day, publishes the statement entire with the
following comments:
"The statement is clear, concise, accu-
rately presents the condition OF our state
finances, and explains the reason why sink
ing funds for the payment OF State debts
maturing between 1883 and 1893 have not
been maintained. 1t will be recollected that
at the recent meeting at the Maryland lnsti-
suite Gov Hamilton arraigned the General
Assembly and officers of the treasury on
the charge of having been derelict in their
duty in that connection and to persons un-
familiar with the matter such sweeping
statement was well calculated to excite un-
easiness, growing out of a Misrepresentation
of the actual condition Of affairs. No more
complete refutation of the charge made by
the Governor could be made than the state
ment over the signatures Of the comptroller
and treasurer Of the State. Without in
quiring into the motive that prompted Gov.
Hamilton to indulge in such criticism, at
this time it is only necessary to refer to the
communication to see that the Governors
conclusions are not justified by the facts.
At the close of the last fiscal year the entire
State debt was slightly in excess of eleven
and a-quarter millions of dollars. OF this
sum nearly five and three-quarter millions
was debt for internal improvements con-
tracted before 1910. To balance this the
State holds securities, the fruits Of these in
vestments, worth in open market to-day
over four million dollars. The remainder
of the debt-about five and a-half millions
was contracted between 1870 and 1880 for
the payment of war bounties, for the State
Insane ASYLUM, Deaf and Dumb Asylum,
the payment of matured Indebtedness and
other purposes, to which no valid objection
has nor can be made. BY an act of the
Legislature, passed in 1864, nearly four and
a-half million dollarS of the then sinking
fund was Cancelled, the effect of which was
to leave sinking fund of little more than
one and a-quarter million dollars. This act
CuIJlUH uOWH tne SlHkl1lS luuu was pdSocd
by Republican Legislature and upon the
express recommendation Of Gov. Bradford,
and that action was affirmed by the people
of the State without regard to political pre-
objections and, TO say the least, public criti-
cism of the course pursued at this late day
is inopportune. The Constitution OF the
State was not violated either in letter or
spirit by the legislation on this subject, as is
clearly shown by the statement. The ques-
tons presented by the Governor are whether
we are to largely increase our rate of taxa
ton in order to extingush rapidly the debt
during the present generation, O. to pay the
debt gradually by the sale of the States
valuable internal improvement properties
To increase our tax rate would, of course,
be unwise, and it would be equally inn
polite to sell the States interest in its in
ternal improvements. The loan of 1885,
| $50 &c, maturing in 1888, can easily be
funded at per cent, and probably at less
rate of interest, and in fifteen years the saw
ing effected in interest alone would amount
to more than one-third Of the whole debt.
The treasury officers very properly abstained
from investing annually 100000 in State
securities to add that sum to the sinking
fund, for the very simple reason that when
money was available for such purpose the
prices of these securities were too high, as
the treasurer and comptroller remark, to
permit proper exercise Of the discretion
lodged by the act in the treasury officers