Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-02-05

already been drawn from tn,
county treasures, and that TIL
money will be soon exhausted
This leaves $1,94O,OOO to rul
the state the rest of the year
Between now and October |, Mr.
Nation estimates that expendi
lures will reach $2,4OO,OOO. Tht
State Auditor sent the follow.
ing communication to the Sen.
ate and House:
Il beg to call your attention
to a matter pertaining to ou1
state finances, which | consider
OF very serious moment.
1.-The facts are that the Leg
lslature two years ago failed to
provide for sufficient revenue
to pay the expenses of the state
and take care of the enormous
appropriations made by that Leg
islature. The result is that, in
my humble judgment, the State
Treasurer will be stamping war
rants 4"Not paid for want of
funds" in October and possibly
in September of this year.
"We had on hand on the first
day of December 1908, in the ger
eral revenue fund about $4,000,
not including the amount tied
up in the defunct First National
bank of Topeka. At that time,
practically all of the 1907 tax
es had been paid into the state
treasury. We have already
drawn out Of the county treas
uries $662,000 of the 1908 tax
es and this $662,OOO will not
more than pay the expenses of
the state up to February l. Nov
this leaves us a balance in the
hands of the county treasures,
Of the tax of 1908, of $1,54O,OOO.
/ estimate the fees that will
be received from the various
sources and available to pay cur
rent expenses up to October l,
will aggregate 100000. So that
we will have available cash with
which to pay current expenses
up to October l about 81, $40, 900.
Now | estimate that the expense
of the state for the months Of
February to September, inclusive
will average 100000 per month.
l base this estimate on the
amount of building in process Of
construction, the ordinary cur
rent expenses of the state and
the additional expense liable to
be incurred by the Legislature in
the way of deficiency apprOpria-
tions and appropriations becOm-
ing available at once. So that
between now and October l, we
will have expenses aggregating
$2,4OO,OOO and only $1,94O,OOO in
cash available to pay it.
81 eel perfectly safe, there
fore, in advising you that the
State Treasurer will be stamp
ing warrants "NOt paid for want
of funds" not later than OctO-
Der and possibly in September o
this year,
The bill introduced last week
raising the minimum from 1000
to 10000 population of cities re-
quired to make nominations ty
primary, has been recommended
to not affect this years cleo
ton.
A bill has been introduced
which premitS cities of the
second class to adopt the com
mission form of government If
they desire. 1t is still before
the committee, but will likely be
acted upon this week.
The committee on elections
has reported the death Of two
bills to the house. One was the
bill providing for the election
of United States senators by the
people by the placing of the nan
of the successful party nominee
at the primary nominating elec'
ton on the party ballot at the
general election. The other was
the bill forbidding any political
party from receiving contribution
from any corporation for use al
a campaign fund. I
A bill which had been introdu'
ed in the senate a bill making il
commissioners authority to sup
lervise and equalize assessments