St. Landry democrat., 1883-05-19
ACT 93.
Reckless Expenditure of Pub
lie Funds.

lEC Funds.
senator Leake Submits the Report of
the senate Committee
-To INVESTIGATE ONE OF THE LAR
GEST LAND GRABS ON RECORD.
AUDITOR JUMEL, ATTORNE1-GEN-
ERAL EGAN, EFT AL.
Special to the Picayune.
BATON ROUGE, La, May 8.
To His Excellency Samuel D. McEnery, Cover
ernor of Louisiana.
Report ON Act 93.
Pursuant to resolution of the Sem
5ate of Louisiana, the undersigned com
snittee has investigated the workings of
che board appointed under Act No. SO,
approved April 10, 1880, and beg leave
TO report that the Board Of Commits
sioners met on the Both of April, 1880,
with the following members present !:
Louis A. Wiltz, Governor and ex-officio
President w. J. Behan, A. D. Meyer,
Allen Jumel, |. w. Patton and Will A.
Strong. Mr.. Jumel was elected Vice.
: President, and Mr.. Strong was elected
Secretary of the board. At that meet
ing they adopted rules and regulations
lIi0 UUdlu llOAIi W nlCh W.
! copy the following: 5. The vouchers or
Certificates in favor Of Claimants
TO be issued by the board shall be issued
and delivered to said claimants or their
attorneys in the order in which they are
approved, as provided for in rules sec
.ond aud third. Said certificates shall be
!. in the following form, to bear the sig
i nature of the secretary and the seal Of
i the board:
CERTIFIcATE-No. blank, State of
! Louisian, New Orleans, 1880. To the
Treasurer and Auditor of the State of
Louisiana, and to all Sheriffs and State
Tax Collectors throughout the State !;
You are hereby authorized and required
to accept from-or bearer this GER
tificate for the sum of one hundred dol
lars in settlement of any taxes Except
the taxes due the interest fund and the
ievee fund) and licenses due the State
of Louisiana. prior to the first day OF
January, 1880. The same being for a
part of the claim of said-against
the State. Examined and approved by
the board created under the provisions
OF the State of Louisiana, promulgated,
April IL, 1880. Louis A. Wiltz, Cover
nor and ex -officio President. 800. ,
Secretary.
The Constitutional Convention
Of 1879, remitted all interests, penalties.
costs, fees and charges due the State or
any political corporation therein, prior
60 the first day of January, 1879, that
were unpaid, provided the taxes We're
Maid by January 1881, and act No. SO was
passed for the benefit of these officers
Of the State Of Louisiana who had rem
dered services in the prosecution OF said
tax and license suits, and who were
entitled to pay for the same from the
State.
Section1 of the act authorizes the
Governor to appoint board of five of
which he, shall be ex-officio chairman,
whose duty it shall be to ascertain and
approve the amount of such costs, fees,
ana charges legally due to said officers
and thus remitted, when approved by
said board, the aforesaid claims shall be
received in payment of any taxes and
licenses due the State prior to the first
day of January, 1880. We find
No Authority i'm the Law
for issuing certificates, and had the
board confOrmed to the law and ap-
.proved detailed bills of costs, fees etc.,
your committee would have experienced
little difficulty in reporting upon the
legality and justice OF the claims acted
upon. AS is, we have no data. The
statements filed and now in possession
of the Auditor are not itemized and are
without date.
The Following Parties
were the benefciaries of tlles board,
Thos. Duffy, j. r. Alcee Gauthreaux, j
&C. Egan, w. p. Harper, Thomas p
Handy, Thos. Il. Maxwell, Ben. Arm
nruster, v. G.. Mcconnell, Allen Jumel
j. v. Guillotte, John Curry, E. E. Buck
ner. A. Micou. Eugene Wagaman, James
Graham. The claims of ex-Sherifs
Maxwell, Harper and Wagaman were
certainly not remitted By the constitution
of 1879. These officers were elected and
served as follows Maxwell 1868 to 1872
Harper 1872 to 1874, and Wagaman, 1874
to 1876. They haa ample time to collect
the taxes, fees and penalties, and it they
slaad.any claims at all they were pres
1cribed long before the adoption OF the
constitution Of 1879.
MIR. Jumel
.snfnrms MS. that his claim amounting tc
.soa 1e1 was for 29, ,181 certificates of re-
demntion ISSUED, or to be issued. Ger
.4ificates of redemption are issued only
nnon the application Of the delinquent
Gffer ,,auing lis htres, to redeem his
s,ronerty and at his cost. AS the parties
sued had not paid their taxes there was
certainly no occasion for issuing certiti-
@ates Of redemption, and at that date
few. If any were issued. The State has
nothing to do with the collection OF this
fee. and it was not remltted BY the con
sfifs1tion. If the Auditor had any claim
it was against the taxpayers and /, no1 al