Daily Kennebec journal., 1916-08-19

| Haines administration was given in the
State auditors report and in the public
press and included uncollected taxes of
sl'oS1,oolo2 and cash to pay current bills
mot as you give it, but s72S, 1853. % enough
to pay all current liabilities and leave a
balance of s2S1, 1920. Your administration
| has collected from the tax assets left YOU
| s1,S7S,3Sl.2l. This with the $72S, ,353 % cash
amounts to $685. 734. "A, enough to pay the
current liabilities of s., 252 ,362S5 you speak
| of and leave several hundred thousand
| dollars besides.
| AS this question Of current assets and
| current liabilities has been opened up, /
| will state now that in leaving the tax
! assets of S1.SS7 .02 we left current liza
| bilities of school and mill tax, common
school tax and railroad tax amounting to
81, ,6S1 ,61537. of the current liability yol,
have paid $1,6S1, ,5Ss76. In this settlement
the net debt is not changed but the cash
ton has received $196,79252 more than
they paid out and this sum helps to swell
| the cash balance that you report.
Having considered your statements
bearing upon the three previous admin
istratons it is proper to give some at
| tention to the statements relating to your
| own.
| The Curtis Statement.
| According to your public statements of
recent date you advance two reasons for
seeking reelection. First your obliSa-
! ton to those who have had faith in you
and have stood by you so Loyalty. Sec
l Ond
legislature a bill for a financial system
whereby all money will be accounted for
as it comes in and goes OUT and show
| bow much the State is spending each
year Your party friends give the addi-
| tional reason that you have given the
| State a successful business administra
| ton and point to the large cash balance
in the treasury as evidence of this claim
!, Why is this large amount of public
money which was taken by taxation from
the people for certain specific purposes
| lying in the banks drawing interest from
. to per cent? Surely this is not PROOF
| OF good businec" management?
! II this money was not needed 1t should
have been left in the pockets of the peo-
pie where it belongs. If it is needed why
is it not being used for the purposes for
winch the legislature appropriated it.
| The direct taxes assessed for 1915 and 1916
amounting to about S.. .0nO, 900 is the largest
sum the people Of this State was ever
| called upon to pay. You stated in your
Augusta speech that the tax rate could
have been made 81 mills for the two years
or possibly mills. If or 81 mills would
! have been sufficient to meet the needs OF
government, then a rate of or "a mills
| should have been adopted and not the
| unnecessary one of 10 mills Surely this
cannot be considered an evidence of good
! business management 1t certainly can
not appeal very strongly to the average
| tax payer. You state in order to make
the tax rate less than 10 mills you would
have had to use the land reserved school
| funds meaning of course the land re-
| served for public uses. This is scarcely
valid excuse, for the reason that the
net receipts for this fund for the wear
1915 were only s3e,319.7O which would not
go very far as a substitute for a mill tax
which in our present valuation amounts
to about s5ooOOo
A Legislative Resolve
| Your public interest in lands re-
served for public uses fund calls to
my mind that the Legislature of 1913
passed resolve authorizing the
State treasurer and State auditor to
ascertain the true standing of any
and all accounts in the treasury.
Under this resolve the accounts of
lands reserved for public uses was
examined and the report made to the
of
of the principal was found to be less
by a few thousand dollars than the
total on the treasurer's and auditors
DOCKS. There was, however, several
| times this amount that was credited
to this fund and carried as liability
which could not be credited to anv
particular town or plantation for
lack of information in the old rec
ords. AS this money was received by
the State as a trust fund for school
purposes the State treasurer and aud
itor of 1914 recommended that this
money should be credited to the
permanent school fund upon which
the State pays an annual interest of
| s per cent for schools. This was a
part Of the accepted report. I fnd
| that instead Of guarding this trust
! fund by transferring this amount
from lands reserved to permanent
school fund the State treasurers re-
port of 1918 shows that s16,545.69 have
been dropped from the land reserve
and not credited to the public school
fund thereby depriving the public
schools of that annual interest of
about $1,000 and the fund itself of
$16.545.69. Was this done to make
good showing in the years ball
ance by removing this liability i?
The law requires that any bal
ance left on the common school
funds, the equalization fund, indus
trial education and teachers pension
fund. shall be credited to the perma-
nent school fund since this money is
taken from the school tax At the
close Of the year 1914. the State aud
itors report shows nearly $11, 900
credited to this fund from these ap-
preparations. The State treasurer's
report for 1915 shows an increase to