The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-04
GOVERNOR BUDD'S MESSAGE.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE TELLS OF
HIS ADMINISTRATION.
Sent to the Legislature Yesterday
Salient Points in the Conn
munication.

i
| to both houses yesterday II q
lengthy document, and is INTRODUCED
| by the following:
81 yield to my successor, with greater
pleasure than received from my preo-
ecessor, the Governorship OF the otate
of California When I was lnaugurateo
the financial condition Of the State was
deplorable; and the task before me-
with a Legislature composed OF po1tl-
cal opponents. was a formidable one.
For a number of years the state
had been under a financial cloud, and
had pursued a slip-shod, down-at-the-
heel, rrow-from-P eter-to-p pay aul
policy.
Payments of it's debts were delayed,
and it's warrants were at a discount on
| the street-a condition of affairs dis
graceful at home and disastrous abroad.
Its institutions were under neither
systematic nor uniform laws, the asy-
iums were filing with those not en-
the order of the day.
| 'Bounties were paid on coyote soaps
and the INDECENT laws made the basis
of gross frauds.
"The Controllers estimates continued
to increase from report to report, ana
the Legislatures augmented the
amounts beyond all reason.
estate property was at loose ends; no
account was taken thereof; and no IN
ventories given or required.
limitations of food fined the markets,
| to the detriment Of the real products
| Of the State.
| Authorizations abounded everywhere,
and the laws of health were openly ig-
nored.
Our roads We're a disgrace, and the
money spent upon them largely wasted
| through ignorance of the art of road
building.
County governments existed by per-
mission only, as there was no constitu-
tional law regulating them.
Tax sharks thriyed on the distress
Of the people.
| "Our Codes were practically shape
less, and my predecessor had urged the
creation Of a commission to put them in
form.
The University Of California suffered
! from lack of funds, and proper build
| ings had twice been denied the Affiliat-
ed Colleges.
Needless taxation was placed on the
people for the useless institutions that
had sprung UP.
This was, in part, the condition of
| the State when I assumed the response
bilities of this office. AS I relinquish
them, I am glad to say that all these
conditions have undergone radical
and permanent change"
| Under the head of finances" the sew
! eral State funds are defined and de-
scribed, and the charge is made that
"the State has, year by year, wilfully
permitted the general fund to become
| exhausted, and its creditors-the mer-
chants and mechanics, the contractors
and laborers doing business with the
State-to wait for months at time for
their money, or has compelled the Con-
! troller to make transfer of hundreds
of thousands of dollars annually to save
| it's credit"
| GENERAL FUND.
| Under the head of condition of the
general fund when became Governor"
| it is set forth that the fund was so
small, and the demands against it so
large that it became exhausted in May,
1895, again in July, 1895, and remained
so until December. 1895. 1t is main
|
the usual one, and quotations are made
from the Controllers report in support
of the assertion.
The Governor states in the same re-
lation that in 1884 the Controller was
compelled to make a transfer of $780,
000 from other funds to meet the de-
mands against the general fund, and
that the matter was SO serious that he
determined to remedy the evil. ITO
| that end" the message continues, Il
required appropriation bills concerning
which I conferred with the legislature
to contain a clause making the appro-
priations not available until the Janu-
airy following. I made it clear to the
Chairmen Of the Finance Committees
of the two houses that the tax levy bill
for the forty-seventh fiscal year must
provide sufficient to pay the debts, de-
| ficiencies, overdrafts and outstanding
warrants Of previous administrations,
and such claims as might legitimately
come against the fund; that a one
twenty-fourth clause should be inserted
in the General Appropriation Act to
prevent deficiencies in the future; and
that a sufficient surplus must be pro-
vided to leave a balance with which to
pay demands between the beginning of
a fiscal year and the payment Of the
first installment of taxes.
| MY requests were cheerfully fol-
lowed.
| 1.-TWO millions of appropriations made
! by the Legislature were vetoed, and the
expenditures from the fund were les
sened by some half million Of dollars a
year by laws.
Through these matters combined.
and with $427, 1913 less in the tax levy
bill for the general fund than in the
| bill for the two years ending June 80,
1891, the State has been placed upon
q firm cash basis
| The report of the Controller is again
quoted in support of the statement.
| A table is inserted, showing the date
each year when the general fund was
exhausted, and when payment was re-
sumed The figures show that for the
year ending June 80, 1890, the tax levy
for the support Of the general fund was
81, So, $40; that the fund was exhaust
ed August II, 1889, payment resumed
January, 1880, and that the fund was
overdrawn S942, 1872 AZ. The message
shows that for the year ending June 30,
| 1893, the levy for the support of the
fund was S2,756 1854, and that on Octo-
Der II, 1892, it was exhausted; pay
ment resumed in December, 1892, the
| fund having been overdrawn $500
1871; that ON April IL, 1893. S3O0,OOO
was transferred to the general fund,
and that on June 9th of the same year
the fund was again exhausted, and pay
ment was not resumed until December
1t is shown that for the year ending
Tuna % 1904 tho fund was OUpr6r1Wn