The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-07-30

vent waste OF PUBIC inOHeyS anu VII
able counties and cities to accurately
compare their expenditures and reve-
nues with others more or less SINH
larly situated. Moreover, by regular
inspection of state, county and city
books, accurate detailed public re-
ports can be made up each year, thus
taxpayers in public affairs.
As one thinks of the matter squarely',
II is rather hard on the taxpayer to
declare he is negligent in not keep
ing in touch with the public business,
when the newspapermen know that
under the present system they cannot
keep up with public plumber and ex-
travagance, because they have no
means of access to the books, have
not the time to study them, and
would find them all so different and
complicated that they could gain
nothing from the books II they were
to examine them. If reports were
published every year, whether there
was suspicion of crookedness or not,
the taxpayers would soon be able to
judge how their money was being
spep-.
Just now, of course, with the chief
clerk of the last state auditor in the
penitentiary, and about 100 of the
|119 county, court clerks repaying
money improperly taken from the
public during eight or ten years, and
several sheriffs under a cloud, Ken
lucky can appreciate the necessity for
rigid supervision Of public accounts;
but these other considerations far
outweigh the mere prevention Of
theft.
In his speech Mr.. Thatcher says in
part:
Uniform accounting in dts full
sense, and as We hope. by law, to
apply 1t in Kentucky, means that all
accounts showing the receipts or dis
bursement of any character of public
revenues by state officers, as we'll as
by officers of counties, cities, towns,
school districts, and other taxing sub
divisions or units within the state,
shall be classified, systematized and
kept uniform in all Offices of the
same class.
at means that every penny of pub
lie money, by whomsoever received
and by whomsoever and for whatso-
ever purpose disbursed, shall be the
subject of a prescribed entry; an
entry that shall be exactly alike in
form to every other entry in the other
similar Offices in the state dealing
with similar public money.
''If we enact such law, ii means,
for instance, that the accounts of all
the sheriffs in Kentucky. will be
classified and kept alike; and the
sheriff Of Estill county-if he will
keep HE accounts as directed-can go
into the sherif's Office in Madison
county, or into any other sheriff's
office in the state and IL accounts are
there kept as prescribed, ne can un-
derstand them as we'll as his own.
Similarly, the accounts of every other
class of public Offices will be kept
under like system of uniformity.
Uniformity means invariability, even
ness, consistency. regularity
Inspection, in dts fun sense. and
as we hope, by law, to apply 1t in
Kentucky, means that the accounts Of
every public Office and department in
the state, whether of state, county.
city, town, school district or other
taxing subdivision or unit, shall be
rigidly and in a strictly non-partisan
way, examined under the supervision
of a state bureau of inspection, at
timely ntervals-usually once a
year, but without notice-and due
report thereof made, published, and
disseminated for public information
and advantage.
"The requirements as % classifica-
tion and uniformity of all public ac-
counts Cd methodize all public
Offices CD train public officers to the
strictest. simplest business systems;
CD educate those officers to a cor
rect understanding and application of
the laws and ordinances; (4) render
the inspection of such offices a COM
paratively simple matter, and (5)
enable the compilation of complete
and accurate data for educational,
comparative and financial purposes.
This annual report will contain
the full accurate history of every
county, city, town and taxing district
in the state for the fiscal year. Thus
IL will be known how much each
county of the state collects in various
revenues; how much each expends for
bridges, for culverts; how much for
roads; how much for criminal prose-
and how much for each and
every other class of county expense.
Similarly, it will be known how
much revenue is collected In each city
or town of the state, and how much
each expends for streets, how much
for bridges. how much for police and
fire protection, and how much for
each and every other kind of munich
pal expense"