The log cabin Democrat., 1915-03-01
ASSEMBLY SESSION IS NEARING CLOSE ONLY TEN MORE DAYS EXTRA SESSION IS UNLIKELY GRIFFIN TO PUSH THE
 LOAN BILL.
{ (Arkansas Gazette, March 1.)

| "Oi NiiiS detyS III WHICH LO UlSpOSe O1 it's business. They will be the busiest days of the entire session, and the night sessions of last week will prob ably be repeated in intensified form this week. Last week the house held three night sessions and one all-night committee meeting
 That adjournment will be taken at the end of the constitutional limit of 60 days is practically certain. The only alternative, so far as carrying forward any unfinished business now on the calendar, would be for the leg
 islature to extend without pay There
 has been no rush to adopt a resolution
 for any such performance.
 The extra session of 15 days which the governor might call would not help to save unfinished legislation. When the regular session ends all pending
 bills die where they are, whether on the calendar or in committee. There IS no way to carry them over into an extra session, even if called on the
 heels of the reguluar term. If con sidered at such a session they would have to be reintroduced and go the whole route of first, second and third readings, committee examination, amendment, etc, just as they had never been previously considered at the regular session.
 If 1t were possible to carry them forward there are dozens of general bills that have been given considera- tion that could be finished within a few days additional time But if l they don't get over the legislative plate by noon of March 12 they won't get into the digest of 1915 acts. With the situation facing the house, | it is difficult to forecast what meas ures will be given feature considera- | tion this week aside from the appro- priation bills. With a total of 451 bills introduced, two-thirds of which are still somewhere on their way through the house, and including scores of general bills interesting to the public and dear to their authors, 1 it is likely that the week will result l in a scramble for recognition by mem- | bers. That the appropriation bills will be given right of way is taken as matter of course. They will be con- | sidered as fast as they come over from the senate, and may be called uup at any time as privileged bills. For convenience, most of them are originating in the senate, through the budget committee, this session. More than 20 new general bills were | introduced last week, and the consid- eration of the appropriation bills started. No definite plan was agreed upon as to a solution of the revenue | trouble.
 Mir. Griffin introduced a bill for an issue of state treasury notes to meet this, but the plan was not endorsed | by the Ways and Means Committee, although some of the individual mem bers favor the bill. Nothing else, so I far, has been offered to take care of the deficit.
 Incidentally Mr Griffin has made some calculations showing the loss of revenue to the state after the general tax levy was reduced in 1905, and be- | fore it was restored in 1913, to be $1 1,346,S22, allowing nearly $100,000 for delinquent taxes in that time. He has further figures showing the war rants outstanding Feb. 15, 1915, to have been $471,796 and after allow ing an estimated expense of $450000 for the four and one-half months from now until the settlement of the tax collectors, he gives a total deficit due on that date of $921,796, presuming that the expense of government will not be increased over this period be- yond what they have been for the av- craze of the past year. Adding to this his estimates of $325000 for vari- ous deficits to be met by the present legislature, and for such apprepria- tions as the Smith-Lever bill and oth- CTS not included in the last legislature appropriations, MT. Griffin reckons that the total deficit will approach $1, 100000.
 He has made an estimate of the in- terest on the proposed $1,000,000 loan provided in his bill over a period of 12 years, and claims that the one fourth mill levy specified will provide for this and retire the loan, with $32, ,000 to spare.
 He will make these contentious and submit these figures in support of his bill when it comes up this week.
 The consideration of the Dowdy re- vised fiscal board bill will probably come up again in the house early in the week, and among the senate meas ures claiming attention will be the bill L. L.. lL.Ar l ( u