Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-11

| VI Pd4llliS Inc dDll1lt VI luC StstJC ~
! operate upon a cash paying basis, and
when your honorable bodies assembled if
| it should be found that there was still a
| surplus by reason of the tax rate being
too high you could remit the oyerplus TO
| the people and then more advisedly adj
Just the levy to suit the requirements of
the case, and the only loss TO be sustained
by the tax payers would result from the
loss of the interest on the excess, If any
not required for the current expenses of
the government, which was too small TO
each citizen to be deemed Objectionable.
In support of the ACCESSIBILITY of this
suggestion attention was called to the
fact that certain bonds, hereafter TO be
called to your attention, would fall due
and no sinking fund has been created to
meet them. If, therefore, the existing
tax rate was not disturbed we might
safely calculate upon the excess of re-
ceipts over disbursements to supply the
government with the necessary funds to
meet It's obligations to these private cred
itOrs, and this would leave the remaining
surplus, less the amount RENTED to the
taxpayers to be disposed of in payment
of existing deficiencies and for such other
meritorious purposes as were commended
to their Judgment.
And now in view of the fact that when
you shall have provided for the current
expenses of the Ieformatory if the esti-
mates of the comptroller are adopted as a
basis for such appropriations as you may
make to run the government, the ex-
penditures and receipts will be about
evenly balanced on August 81. 1889.
And when you consider that as the re-
ceipts derived from taxation are not uni
form during the year, the great bulk of
it reaching the treasury in December ana
January, and for more than half the
year the expenditures exceed the re-
ceipts, making it imperative to keep
A SUFFICIENT SURPLUS
or reserve as a margin to tide the govern
ment over these months, to prevent q
temporary embarrassment and to enable
the treasury to meet all lawful demands
at maturity, requiring for this purpose in
the opinion of the comptroller at least
$500 ZOO to constitute a safe margin, you
can readily appreciate that it creates an
eXigency beset with difficulties, but no
less demands your serious attention.
And the inquiry which naturally sug-
gests itself is, how are we now to avert
the impending deficiency during the COM
ing fiscal year? Should you now deem it
advisable to restore the former tax rate
of % cents this might afford relief for the
year 1890, but as the government for
1889 has to be supported from the taxes
levied and collected in 1888 and now on
hand, it is too late to seek relief
for this year from that source, and as
it is quite certain that it will require all
the revenue accruing from q 25-cent levy
to supply sufficient sum to support the
government for 1890 with the increase in
expenses heretofore mentioned, it would
be ineXpedient and unwise to burden that
year with a deficiency inherited from
1889.
In the first place, then, respectfully
submit that it will be necessary for you
to scrutinize the expenditures with great
care, and while economy does not suggest
or require that you should withhold the
means necessary to accomplish important
objects, it is my deliberate opinion that
many of the appropriations asked for and
the estimates presented for ordinary cur
rent expenses, upon which the comp
troller bases his report, are in excess Of
what they should be in the face of our
present financial condition.
1t will be seen by comparison with the
appropriations made at the special SEES
sion of the Twentieth legislature that
while some of the departments and insti-
buttons ask for less, the aggregate de-
mand is S37I ,5O4 in excess of previous
appropriations. A proper analysis,
however, will disclose the fact that part
of this sum is
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY
to provide for the additional charitable
and reformatory institutions and the
commission of appeals court, not form
erly embraced in the appropriation bill.
In this connection it is worthy to re-
mark that while the executive branch of
the government and many, if not all the
penal and charitable Institutions, seem
from present information to have been
kept strictly confined in their expendi-
lures within the limit of the appropria-
lions provided, and many have covered
back into the treasury unexpended bal
ances from last year, the judicial depart
ment has transcribed its appropriations,
and the deficiency to be provided for in
payment of the fees of sheriffs, clerks,
attorneys, special judges, attached
witnesses and justices and constables in
examining courts amounts to
1881 600. From this enormous
increase in the cost of enforcing our
criminal laws under the existing statutes
you may likely discover an explanation
of the probable stringency in our public
finances, and it may direct your efforts
towards a reasonable retrenchment in
this department of government as well as
others.
The amount of fees in felony cases paid
district attorneys, sheriffs and clerks in
district courts for the year 1881 was S178 >
796 .95 and increased in 1892 to S404 :
606 IS, then diminished in 1883 TO $780,
S62 SO. But from that period the
increased ratio has been uniformly rapid
until it has reached the enormous sum in
1888 of 500 I55 80. 1t is needless to
suggest that any effort at retrenchment
and reform in this direction by merely
restricting the amount of appropriations
without change in the law under which
extravaganza, if any, originates would
be futile and delusiye, for the claims
would still come up in overcoming de-
ficiencies and have to be recognized and
honored.
Your special attention should be given
to the following bonds to which the
comptroller alludes in his report under
the caption of
BONDED DEBT OF THE STATE.
Referring to table No. 4S, the bonded
Indebtedness of the state is shown to be