The Somerset reporter., 1889-01-10

FINANCES.
The financial condition of the State is
one which will soon justify further re-
dnction of taxation. Its details will be
presented to you in the report of the Com
missioner of the Treasury will soon be
laid before you.
Under the act of 1887 which practically
abolished the Sinking Fund, 81. l9s DOC
of our State bonds included in that fund
were cancelled and destroyed. This has
reduced the bonded debt to 81 as 900
due June first and 81, lS7 400 due October
first of the current year From this az
gregate Indebtedness of $685., 400 there
is to be deducted the amount remaining
in the Sinking Fund whose present value
is 81 , l97, lo7 ,43. This amount is invested
in United States bonds and in the State
bonds of Massachusetts, and New lamp
s1lre. Ia eteting the total value | include
the premium ut which these securities
arc now selling IN the tnanclal Market
After this deduction is made there will
remain not exceeding 81, $50, 600 of the
State debt to be refunded. The State has
accepted the trust under the will of the
late Governor Coburn to receive Sl50, 900
for our public institutions and to disburse
the interest thereon at the rate of four
per cent per annum. This sum of Sl50,
600 may be applied to the payment of
the present bonded debt, thus reducing
the sum total of the States public obi
CATION to some 50 600, 900, This amount
is possibly subject to still further redu' =
by Congress Iefundng the direct tax an.
ounting to S357 ,702 90 levied by the Ma
tional Government in August, 1861. But
as the bill has not yet become a law the
State cannot reckon with certainty upon
any amout from that source.
An effort to exchange the proposed
three per cent bonds for our outstanding
skies, allowing for difference of interest
until maturity, was made in 1887 without
success. But it is evident that in the
present condition of the money market,
the State can command all the money
which 1t may desire at an interest of
three per cent per annum. Indeed, we
are justified by recent sale of Mass
achusettS State bonds in believing that
three per cent Maine bond will command
Il considerable premium. our long es-
tablished credit warrants the pre,ump-
ton that a Maine bond will sell at as high
a rate as the bond of any State in the
CniCn especially when 1t is remembered
that after the present debt is paid, the
State Is forbidden by the Constitution to
incur any debt in excess of three hun
bred thousand dollars except to sup
press instruction, to repcl invasion or
for purposes of war
The loan act passed by the last legis
lature needs, | think, to be so far amend
ed rs To permit the treasurer with the APP
proval of the governor and council, to
fix the date of the new bonds instead of
being rigidly confined to the date on
which one portion of the present debt
shall fall due. This permission cannot
possibly be INSTANTANEOUS to the State
and ii may prove highly beneficial in en-
abling the treasurer to sell the bonds at
the highest possible price.
With the refunding of the debt com
pleted as we may not anticipate 1t will be,
the amount of our annual interest can
not exceed SO 600 par annum and II the
direct tax should be repaid by the ma
tional government, we may fairly hope to
see 1t reduced as low as $50 900 per an
mum. The extent of this relief to the
treasury and the taxpayer, rs contrasted
with our financial condition few years
since, is very great, We should remem-
Der that in 1871 the annual interest upon
the pnblic debt GALL raised by direct tax
alton of the people, was $3.50, 600 per an.
mum. Nor does this statement convey n
full impression of the difference between
taxation now and what it has been at
several periods since 1861 The year
after the close of the war, the rate of
taxation was fifteen mills, and the az
gregate amount raised was nearly two
and half millions of dollars more
than the entire State debt will amount to
after the refunding to be completed dur
ing the current year.
rhe total taxation may safely be re-
duced for the year 1880 to two and one
quarter mills which would be reduction
of $ll7, 1894 per annum. The lightness
of a State tax of two and one quarter
mills can be appreciated only by remem-
bcring that one mill of it is for the
school fund, levied according to proper
ty and divided according to population.
Excluding the school tax "a wise and gen
erous provision for the youth of the
State In force now for seventeen years }
it will be seen trat the rate of taxation
for general purposes of government will
In 1880 be the lowest tax laid for thirty
years, and as low as any that has been
levied for fifty years. The entire State
tax for next year will he $3.50 099,7j less
than was levied on Cumberland county
alone In the Stale tax of 1850. These
facts show at one and the same time tn.
uniform prudence which has been in
force In the administration of the public
money, and the lghtness of the burden
now resting upon the people for the sup
port of their State government.
1t must be further remembered, tina,
since 1871 (the period at which our debt