Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1912-03-02
KANSAS BOND INTEREST

All Kansas bonds must be onereo
to the State Permanent School Funo
Commission, and be rejected by the
commission, before they can be Solu
to bond dealers or brokers. There is
more than one object and advantage
to be gained by this requirement.
The commission, which consists OF
the state superintendent OF schools,
the secretary of state and the attor-
ney general, desires to keep the per-
manent school fund invested in in
terest bearing securities for the sup
port of the public schools, and the
legal department of the state is thus
given an opportunity to pass upon
the legality of issues before being
registered as the law requires. The
permanent school fund, with which
bonds are bought, arises from the
sale of school lands. The interest
paid on such loans, or bonds, and the
interest on deferred school land pay
ments, is dis tributed semi-annually
throughout the state according to
school population for the payment of
teachers wages. Thus every dollar
of interest paid on such bonds for the
use Of the permanent fund for public
purposes is paid back to the people
for the support of the schools. These
semi-annual dividends are made in
February and August of each year
(the interest being payable in jan
uary and JULY. The dividend or ap-
portionment made in February, 1912.
amounts to AZ cents for each person
of school age in the state; that is,
each person between the ages of five
and twenty-one, married or single,
regardless of school enrolment, ac-
cording to the school census of June,
1911. The school population of Trego
county, according to the census of
of 1911 is 1897 persons, and, according
", the sum which Trego county has
lust received is 1891. SO. This sum is
almost equal to the annual interest
on bond issue of $50, 900. and the
county will receive a similar sum
again next August. Every school
district in the county will receive a
share of the interest paid on high
school bonds according to the number
of persons of school age in the dis
trict The method of distribution is
every taxpayer some help.
The February rate of At cents per
capita is the lowest it has been for
several years. The rate depends up
on keeping the fund loaned out, which
effects the amount of interest receiv-
ed, and secondarily upon the school
population of the state The total
distribution averages about 81 per
year for each person of school age in
the state
Almost every district in the state
has borrowed money from the per-
manent school fund at one time or
another, and some of them more than
once. And yet, although school dis
trict bond issues are matters of every
day knowledge, many voters fear an
issue of township, city or county
bonds worse than they fear the seven
plaques of Egypt. For, example,
during the s'recent unpleasantness'
over the proposed bond issue some
voters were opposed to the issue be-
cause they thought they were al
ready being taxed to pay off the Wa
Keeney city water and light bonds
The men who made this complaint
live OUTSIDE WA-KEENEY city
and township, and, of course, are not
taxed one cent on account of city
bonds. No doubt these men were
honest in their belief but they had
been misinformed. The city of Wa
Keeney borrowed $50. 1000 from the
school fund on water works bonds
three years ago and pays interest on
the same every year in the sum OF
$500 Every school district in the
county gets share of that $500 paid