The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1909-10-15
GEoRGIAs TREASURY DEFICIT.

Governor Brown has received from
the expert accountant, Mr. Alonzo
Richardson, report on the condition
of the State Treasury. Mr.. Richard
son is the accountant who recently
audited the books of former county
officers in Cobb County.
The report to Governor Brown
shows that on January 1st the State
will be in a hole to the tune of S728.-
600. Those figures sound pretty large.
They are much larger than they
ought to be, but they do not indicate
that the State of Georgia is bankrupt
Ihey do not show that any particular
administration has mismanaged pub-
Tic anairs, for the figures represent
the accumulated deficits of number
OF years. Governors have compare
lively little to do with these deficits,
Governor Terrell could not control
them. Governor Smith could not con-
troll them and Governor Brown will
not be able to control them.
The appropriations are all made by
the Legislature. The only thing on
earth that the Governor can do is tn
sign the warrants and pay out the mon
ey according to the appropriation bills
passed by the Legislature. ,-.-.-
The State Of Georgia has had Leg
islatures in recent years that have
gone it blindly" in making appropria,
lions. The members have voted to
spend money without stopping to find
out where it was coming from. or
II it was coming at all When the
appropriations exceeded the receipts
there was deficit, and as this excess
of appropriations over receipts has
been going on for some time the rather
startling figures of $728,0O0 will CON
front Governor Brown on January LIST
The situation will be met as it has
been met heretofore-the school teach
ers VIII have to wait for their money
The school teachers will be made to
wait for the simple reason that they
cannot help themselves. And when
the Legislature meets next summer it
will probably pass a few more appro
priation bills and swell the deficit
Tor If there is one safe bet on earth
II is that the Georgia Legislature will
appropriate more money than the
Treasury can supply.
We have no doubt Governor Brown
VIII handle the situation as well as If
could be handled, but he got very III.
Tie help from the last Legislature and
we doubt if he will get much from
the next.
We are opposed to any bond issue
to meet the deficit for the reason
that we believe the Legislature would
proceed to pile up another deficit to
be met by another bond issue.
Our remedy for this thing would be
to give the Governor full power to We
toing appropriations when they are
in excess of the probable revenue of
the State. What is the sense in ap-
propriating hundreds of thousands of
dollars and then failing to come I'D
with the money? Give the Governor
power to scale the appropriations, or
70 veto special appropriations, for
which there can be no funds. Some
way must be found to compel the Leg
islature to keep within the income of
the State, and if the Legislature can't
do little figuring such as every tax
payer has to do, then let the Governor
do the figuring and follow it up with
a few vetoes.
We need somebody somewhere
along the line who can add and sub
tract, and multiply and divide, and
for that job we nominate the Cover
nor whoever he may happen to be,
for we assume that Georgia will al
ways have a Governor with sense
enough to know that five million dol
lars of appropriations cannot be met
with four and three quarter million
dollars in money.
Former Governor Smith insists that
Mr.. Richardson's figures are mislead-
ing and that he has charged all the
appropriations due to next June as
payable January 1st without allowing
for the receipts that will come in be-
tween January and June. The former
governor says the treasury will show
UP all right on New Years.
Hearst is to run for mayor of New
York under the auspices OF the Re.