The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-15

| | 1S9S.... ..s. .......z,1lz,Soo 1 1S99.... .... 2UtS,z95 l 19OO.... 2l9o,4l | 1901.... .... ..... 2,sS0,zUl 1 1902.... .... .... .... .... 269l, ,32 l While we had on hand 1892 S29.56 on the first day of this year, the balance did run | down In November to a little above two | hundred thousand, and In November, 1901, 1 there was a day when the balance was
 much below one hundred thousand dol | lars The figures warn us that the bur | den put upon the treasury has been l about all that 1t could reasonably bear. 1 The excess of receipts over disbursements l (see last auditors reporD was SS,2S1.72 1 for two years. Instead. then, of prepar- l ing additional burdens for the treasury, | you must arrange in some way to de-
 crease them.
 This will be necessary, because the
 new constitution requires you to reduce
 the tax rate to 65 cents on the hundred 1 dollars. The same instrument requires 1 that sum which may be raised by three l mills of this shall go to the public
 schools. You have been giving under the
 statute one mill for old soldiers If you
 repeat this last provision there Will be | left only 20 cents on the hundred dollars 1 for all other purposes
 With three mills for schools and one l mill for the old soldiers, you can consider | only the claims which will be charged 1 against the 25 cents on the hundred dol
 lars The total assessed property for the year 1900 was $266 ,2SS. s296 1S5,540. It is l fortunate for the state that the assess
 ments has so grown in the two years,
 otherwise the provision of a legislative
 enactment of two years ago. providing | for @ pro rata payment only on appro- | priations, in case of necessity, would i possibly have been invoked to meet the 1 extraordinary disbursements of the two 1 years. A study of the auditors report
 for past years will show that there was
 paid out of the treasury an average of
 something over thirty per cent more
 money In each of the past two years l than has been disbursed in a generation. l The laws that provided for these dis l bursements were unwise, in that they l were likely to embarrass the state For 1 tunately the country prospered, the as- | easements were insisted upon and grew
 by the extraordinary amount of s29.242.- l 252. It will not be wise, however for you 1 to calculate on so great assessment
 through the next four years. We must
 recall that from 1892 to 1895, the states assessment ran down from two hundred and siXty-one million to two hundred and forty-one million, and like falling off Is probable during the next four years 1t Is fair to assume that the assessment sheets for four years will show an aver l age of two hundred and eighty million | dollars and you can afford to calculate on about that amount from which to get your direct taxes. In addition to this source of | 1 revenue, there came in the last fiscal | year $247,000 from license tax new rev. | l enue code, which the constitution re- | l quires the governor, auditor and attor- | ney general to prepare and submit to | yoc, if passed as prepared, will raise an | | n AsIrlf lnrr Vnar xrrfI1 dispose of about one hundred thousand | dollars year from the hire of eonvicts, l and about one-half as much from the of- | flee of insurance commissioner. The net | l income from the commissioner of agricul- i | lures office will be wiped out with any
 reduction in the tag tax and how much of
 charge that department will become
 to the state will depend upon the treat
 ment you accord that tax.
 The license tax will depend upon the l adoption of a revenue code. l The direct tax income, then. ex- elusive of the school and old soldier specials, 1t will be safe l to calculate at two ane one-half mills on two hundred and eighty l millions, will be........ ..........$ 700 GOO | The proposed code will raise, say. 225.000 | Convicts, put safely att. ........ 100000 | From the insurance department. 50000 | From the agricultural fund we can calculate on nothing. ........ GOO |
 The total receipts for general
 purposes may be something more than.... ...... ...... .$l, 0750OO | The report of the auditor and treasurer |
 will show you the various interests |
 which prey upon this fund. The most |
 notable Is the interest on the bonded | debt. now $449.000 and the hospital at |
 Tuscaloosa, and the schools at Talladega, | together, taking considerably over two | hundred thousand dollars. We were fortunate in getting through |
 the past two years without disaster The | demands upon the treasury were the |
 most notable in the states history. So | apprehensive were the lawmakers that 1
 they, in the last days of the last session, |
 passed an act providing that if a lack of |
 money appeared quite probable the sev- | eral appropriati ations were to be diminished | In proportion to their interests to meet |
 any exigency of the treasury. This law |
 was not invoked. The assessments grew
 handsomely under an insistent adminis- | tration and the revenues were so care | fully husbanded that we find the treas 1
 ury, after the two years, in a somewhat | stronger position. The receipts (see latest | auditors report, page 20) were for two i years S5,571. .150.01 and the disbursements |
 (see same page) were s5.671, ,s6s29, leaving | net balance of receipts over dsburses- | ments of $7S,2S1.72.
 Bonded Debt.
 The present bonded debt of the state | amounts to $9,357.600 divided as follows: |
 Class A, due 1sO6 s6.S59, 9,600, bear per cent.
 Class B, due 1906, s57sOoo. bear 5 per cent
 Class c, due 1906, ssss.OoO. bear per cent.
 seay bonds. due 1920, ss54.OOO bear per cent
 The general assembly has several times | in late years provided for refunding this bonded indebtedness, and the constitu-
 ton makers in latest organic law appre-
 hensive that the bonds could not be most
 effectually sold under the legislative act,
 provided as follows:
 '2S3 The act of the general assembly
 of Alabama, entitled An act to consil-
 idate and adjust the bonded debt of the
 state of Alabama approved February
 IS, 1895, and an act amendatory thereof, | entitled An act to amend section of | an act to consolidate and adjust the
 bonded debt of tiIe state of Alabama, ap-
 proved February IS. 1s99,' which said last
 named act was approved February 16, | 1899, are hereby made valid, and both | of said acts shall have the full force and | effect of law except in so far they au..
 thorize the redemption before maturity | of the bonds authorized by said acts to | be issued. The governor is authorized | and empowered to act under the same and to carry out all the provisions there
 1f. 1o1 bot