The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1918-11-15
Shall Michigan Adopt
The Budget system,
fcontinuetl from page one. }

The budget commission says In It's
report that while the profit and loss
statement of the prison shows a pro-
fit, this profit is based upon the cur
rent expense account of the prison on
| ly and not the total moneys involved
in its operation. 1t holds that the
buildings have been allowed to deter
iorate to such degree that it will
take a large sum to place them in
proper condition again. The commits
sion shows also that much of the So
called earnings of the prison are due
to the appreciation in the value of ma
terials and was not derived from the
actual operation of the industries.
PLEDGES STATE PROPERTY
FOR LOANS
Then comes the big shock relative
to pledging state property for loans.
The commission found that under
the law the prison board is a little
government in itself and responsible
almost to nobody. Taking advantage
of this situation, the commission re-
ports that the board borrowed nearly
a million dollars from bank in New
York for the purpose Of buying sisal,
and that it paid "oyer per cent in
terest" on the MONEY and that it
pledged the property of the state as
security for the loan. This, the COM
mission holds, is poor business from
many standpoints and urges that abil-
ity to pledge state property for loans
shall be promptly taken away from
any and all authorities.
One of the greatest sources of waste
according to the report of the commits
sion is in the printing for the state.
Last year the state spent total of
$162, 461 for printing Of books, reports
and bulletins. In addition to this was
the great cost of printing stationery,
cards, blanks and general Office sup
plies.
The commission then points out that
each department instead of writing
concise statement of its activities goes
to the utmost lengths in compiling sta
tistical tables which mean nothing. 1t
holds. that very few of these reports
are even read once by the public OF
anybody else and that to go into such
detail it is necessary to employ a lot
of additional clerical help which, ad-
ded to the cost of printing and bind
ing the reports, makes large bill to
be paid. 1t holds that hardly a state
report need run more than half its
present size, and would then be of
much greater use to the people.
Many reports are also so late in
publication as to be valueless. 1t is
pointed out that one report was is
sued early in 1917 and contained the
statistics for 1914. Of course such
a report was useless. 1t so happened
that this was the report of vital sta
tistics compiled by the secretary of
state. 1t so happens that the state
board of health which also complies
statistics issues similar report. The
two reports rarely ever agree, so that
neither is worth much when it does
finally come out.
The commission finds that much of
the fault is due to the state printer
who does the state work to fill in and
looks after his regular commercial
printing first.
PRINTING TO
MAKE JUNK
: The commission calls especial atten-
ton to the tremendous expense due to
1t refers to the sale
Of vast quantities of state publications
for waste paper. In 1916, for in
stance, % tons of the Compiled Laws
Of 1897 were sold for waste paper.
The state received $31 ton for all
this, or about 23 cents for each set Of
the books. Now, these sets cost the |
state about So each, and today would |
cost the state much more than that. |
The commission holds that in the over
publication in this one instance the
state lost not less than $4,000.
Criticism is also offered Of the
method of distribution. The commits
sion says these reports and publica-
lions are sent out promiscuously over
the state without knowledge as to |
anybody wants them or not.
AS an evidence of this waste, it is
shown that one county clerk reported
ne had just sold two tons of state
publications as waste paper There
had been few requests for the publ
cations in his county.
To correct this, tbs commission sug-
gests that the state take over the
state printing. First, it suggests a
director for state publications, who
will determine the size and form of
all reports and publications of each de-
partment, the number of pages that
nay be used, the kind of paper, bind
ng and the number to be printed. He
would also have charge of the distribu-
ion.
A state supervisor of printing to
ook after the actual mechanical pro-
less Of issuing the publications is also
recommended. While not prepared to
'ay it would be the best solution Of
the difficulty, the commission sug-
rests that thought be given to the
dea of establishing printing plants at