The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-18
Funds of State Are Exhausted,
Knapp Books Show.
Two Hospitals Have $40 for
Three Months Maintenance.
PROBLEM FOR THE GOVERNOR
Duties Demand He Do Some
Worrying Over Home Matters.
More Important Than Debate
Over Cotton Situation.

tial and the state home for feeble
minded-must be operated until July
, 1 on just % cents. Two big state hos
pitaIs-Osawatomie and Larned-
must meet their enormous mainte
nance expenses with less than $40
each for the three months Five in
stitutions have less than $50 each for
food, supplies and repairs for April,
May and June, while seven institu-
| tions have less than $500 each.
Those are some of the problems
which the governor must work out
| when he returns to Kansas from his
eastern trip. When not busy with
his joint debate over the cotton situa-
| ton or the responsibility for the Thir-
! ty-fifth division losses, State Auditor
| Knapp has asked the governor to
! please give thought to state financial
affairs The credit of the state must
be overdrawn during the next seventy
| days or hundreds of inmates of state
! institutions must be denied proper
| food and supplies. This problem must
| be met by the governor and the state
| board of administration or the state
must face a deficit of several hundred
/ thousand dollars.
| Two Cents in Fund.
| There is just two cents in the gem
| eral maintenance fund of the Kansas
| state penitentiary at this time. That
| is the balance from which Warden
Codding must feed nearly 700 inmates
| and employees of the big prison plant
! until July 1, when the new appropria-
tions are available. During the nine
| months from July l, last year, to
| April 1, this year, the prisons main
tenance expense has been $129, 9,999.98.
Using this as a basis, the governor
and the state board must operate the
prison dining room, hospitals and de-
| partments supported from the MAIN
tenance fund upon the price of a be-
| fore the war postage stamp. Under
the showing made by the prison in
| the past, it will require approximately
| $34,500 to carry the prison until the
! first of the year.
| Equally close to the stage of bank
ruptcy is the state home for the fee
bleminded at Winfield. The institu-
ton has just twenty cents in its main
tenance fund. 1t spent $64,999.8O in
the nine months preceding April 1.
All supplies and provisions for the
care of inmates and employees must be
met from the twenty cents. And the
question in the mind of Auditor Knapp
at this time concerns the extent of the
fiscal year deficit and not the ability
of the institution to feed and c1othe
and care for the patients on the pres
ent twenty cent balance.
Osawatomic Has S7.77.
Osawatomie state hospital, with
ployes, has balance in the mainte-
nance fund of exactly $7.77. In nine
months it spend $149,992.23 from this
fund. If the supplies now in the hands
of the institution are not sufficient to
care for the patients for three months
the hospital must violate the state law
by buying supplies for which it can
not pay.
At the Larned state hospital. there
is a balance of s7.17. Since July 1
last year, the hospital maintenance
expense mas amounted to $15,002.17
/ Garden City experiment station has
a maintenance balance of $57.32. Its
expenses for nine months were $4,-
942.91. Colby experiment station has
a balance of $189.02 and Tribune a
balance of $2S7.92. The Hays norma
has maintenance balance of S7OO.47
Its expense for maintenance in nine
months was $1S,299.76.
The industrial school for girls. as
well as the Topeka school for bows
IS on thin ice. The girls school has
a maintenance balance of $1,1S492 for
three months expenses. Its expense
for nine months was $33,S15.OS. The
boys school at Topeka has a balance
of $1,49S.43 and shows an expense ir
nine months of $45,5O1.57. The state
tuberculosis sanitarium at Nortor
spent $28,8S5.49 in nine months and
has a fund of $1.964.51 for three
months.
Topeka Hospital Pinchcd.
The state hospital at Topeka will
have a close run, but seems safe ir
, comparison with a number of other
institutions. 1t has a balance of $34,-
62S.31 for three months. Expenses
of the hospital for the nine month:
ending April 1 were $1SO,37169.
Funds from the maintenance appro-
priations are not used in the paymen
7 of salaries. All expenses for supplies
> food, clothing. repairs and better
ments. as we'll as supplies for hos
pitals and general equipment must bt
purchased from the fund. In more
: than half dozen instances there i.
scarcely chance that the institution:
can escape deficits The matter ha.
been checked up to the governor anC
1.-The state board of administration tina
, responsibility may be easily located il
| event the institutions are compelled t.
) buy supplies on the states credit