Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-01-11

enacted conscientiously following the
recommendations thus made in the In
terest of a merit system that will
sturdily withstand all %corrupting in
nuences. The legislation should be
broad enough to encourage efficiency In
state service by providing an equal
opportunity for all. AS a ean of
meeting a very positive condition the
necessity for higher wages and sala-
ries in order to meet the unusual cost
of living must enter into this question,
not as a part of our fixed relations be-
tween the state and it's employees but
as a temporary ~expedient. l believe
h solution lies in q percentage bonus,
granted in the budget from year to
year until the living crisis is over. In
the meantime employees should be
properly classified through the con-
templated standardization plan.
Fundamental Change in Financial
Policy.
Financial methods in the state bust
ness require the same constant atten-
ton that they receive in the sound
private business. 1t is important that
they be made to conform to those
standards which the lessons of expe-
rience teach. You know of the pres
ent prosperous conditions of the treas
ury. Despite large sums of money
advanced to the federal government
and also the continually increasing
cost of operating all business estab-
lishments, private or public, the state
treasury showed a clear, net balance
at the end of the fiscal year in October
last of $2,458, sol .2S, which was $685.
2S7.41 in excess of the balance over
and above all obligations of 1885,
303.87 the year previous. and $50 per
cent. more than the public purse at
the end of the next previous admins
tration of 1918. Our income in Novem-
Der and December last, the first two
months of the current year, shows an
increase of 100 per cent. over the same
two months of 1916. We can boast of
a larger free balance in the treasury
today than at any time within the
history of the state. Many precautions
are being taken, nevertheless, to con-
serve the public funds and to make
the states business a profitable bust
ness. Departmental heads and COM
missions, sitting frequently as a board
of directors, exchange with the execu-
tive helpful views looking to efficiency
and good of the service. The State
House Commission, meeting frequent
ly, has already set in motion plans for
strict economy in stationery, postage,
telephone and telegraph charges and
other common sources of neglect and
waste In the state offices. Much prog
ress has been made. Yet there must
be no tempering of the vigilance. l
feel very strongly the necessity for leg
islation providing that all revenue
earning departments, boards, commits
sions and institutions of the state, in
stead of applying this revenue to main
tenance or other expenses, as now pro-
vided, shall urn the money into the
state treasury, where it will be check
ed out when and for such purposes
only as appropriations authorized in
the usual way may provide. My view
is that this will be found a more eco
nomical, as, of course, 1t is a o
bu~sinesslike, method.
Taxation.
The question of taxation or rather
its inequalities is becoming, as govern
mental costs ascend, more and more
serious.
Money, of course, must be raised for
these purposes, but careful research
and inquiry should be made to equalize
the burden. 1t is my conviction that
every department of the state govern
ment should give careful thought to
the possibility of making consistent
and proper charges or services render
ed to the public, that those especially
benefited by state activities should
nav for such service, and thus a state
government would distribute the tax
burden where it more properly be-
longs. instead ST the hit-Or-misS plan
of too much general and property tax.
This is the natural outcome of a bust
ness government. and is a subject l
have already opened with various de-
nartments and is already well devel-
oped in the department of labor. l
shall have more to suggest on this sub
ject later.
Changing the Fiscal Year.
AS a proposition to bring about more
intelligent state financing, 1 invite
YOUR attention to the suggestion that
u fiscal year for the state be changed
so that 1t will begin on July 1 rather
than November 1, as now. There are
several reasons which strongly COM
mend such a change. First the exec
utive and legislators could provide for
a budget with better knowledge of con-
ditions as they will exist during the
time that the funds are needed, and
therefore with far greater intelligence,
If the money were to be expended at
a period beginning within a short time
after the close of the average legisla-
tive session. rather than practically