The New York herald., 1922-10-04

cor,nare not with the second year. be-
cause as you know, it Is one thing to
increase expenditures, II is another thing
10 stop them once they have got started,
and they ask US to take their low year.
before their momentum had really got
we'll UP. and to compare that as wen as
the second: and / am willing TO take
that basis of comparison, ana say that
the figures of the State Comptroller
prove that even upon that basis, even
taking their low as well as their high
year. the actual cost OF administering
the State government was reduced by
$1,000, 900.
The Figures Explained.
"They say that from official figures
this appears, know what their official
figures are it is a financial statement
of the States actual business trans
actions for the past few years, which
asked the Comptroller to prepare for me-
and / asked him to give IL to our Demo-
cratic friends too, to pick 1t to pieces
il they wanted to- Now this is what
the figures show. There are two ele-
ments in the cost of government. One
Is the cost of government proper which
we divide for our accounting purposes.
into personal service. and into main
tenance and operation. Those are the
things that by good administration you
can reduce. The other branch includes
fixed charges, like the interest and
sinking fund. moneys for debt service;
contributions, like the return that is
paid to the localities for the support
OF the public schools; items that are
fixed by statute. which can not be
changed unless you change the law,
and capital expenditures or permanent
improvements, things like this New
York-New Jersey vehicular tunnel for
which we have appropriated sl0,0Oo,0oo
and more public improvements of that
sort. Now the sum total OF the appro-
priatiors of the present two years ad-
ministration, for fixed charges. for con-
trbutions for capital expenditures, ex-
coed the like expenditures or appropria-
tons made by the preceding administra-
ton by the sum of s64 900 900 and so II is
a plain proposition-but / should make
one correction, TO be fair, those are the
increases. There was one decrease for
debt service Of nearly $1,000 600 so that
the net increase was not So ,0o0, 600, but
$50. 900 600 or s57 900 900. thereabouts. Now.
II, as they say. and It is the fact the
total expenditures or appropriations
necessarily follows that the. appropria-
tions for the cost OF government. for
the things that you can control-of
course. you can make capital expendi-
lures greater or less, but those are
things that you invest your money in.
and you have them. The cost of gov
ernment includes those things that
after your money is spent, It is gone
you have had service. and that is all +;
and those figures thus show that an
actual reduction in the cost of govern
ment. even taking their low and their
high year, Of $11,ooO0O0 was effected.
But that is not the only test. Ap-
propriations really are not the test.
Any student of government will say
that expenditures are the test, and will
take that test. That is one that there
cannot be any juggling about.
The expenditures for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1a21--that was the
year for which the last Democratic ad-
ministration made appropriations Of
S145, 900. .00O--the expenditures for that
year were not s145,000. 600 they we're
s135,00O. 900 si0,O00,00 less than. the
appropriations at the close Of any fiscal
year I'm the history Of the State. Six
months Of that year was under tho pres
ent administration. We could not con-
troll the appropriations. but we could
limit expenditures. and on January /.
1921 new spirit was infused into the
State service. a spirit. IL you please. Of
spending what was necessary instead
Of all that you could extract from the
state treasury. and the result OF that
was that the actual expenditures were
si35. 900, 600
i will give the preceding administra-
ton credit for that figure II would
have been more. but we will take IL at
that. The actual expenditures tho next
year, the first fun year Of the present
administration were not s135, 600 600 or
S18o,OO0.00O. They arc only St26.000.-
GOO, reduction in actual expenditures
OF 100000 900. and we provided for
capital expenditures of more than So
100000 more. Now that is the record
II has not been secured by any parsi.
monious cheese pairing economy. we
have taken care OF all OF the needs OF
the state government More has been
spent for various purposes like educa.
ton and health and attendants in pub
lie institutions but we have done some
thing else. We have put the state on
2 pay as you go policy. You are cor
rect. Senator, IN saying that we did not
borrow. We did more than that. We
paid from the current revenue for OK
pendtures for which II had been Gus
tomary TO borrow. When we entered
office the appropriations for good
roads were practically gone, except
driblets here and there. remnants
allotted 20 the counties. We hayo uut
the completion OF our highway system
on pay as YOU 60 basis We are
building our good roads out OF current
revenue. and we built more miles OF
good roads last year than were ever
built in the history OF the state.
I'VE Rad issued bonds, az you know
for tho canal terminals. 500, 900, 600 Of
bonds, and when this administration
came IN those bond moneys were gone
and terminals were not completed. and
the Superintendent OF Public Works o,
the outgoing administration submitted
an estimate which was not included. let
me toll you. in this estimate Of s205.-
100000 that ! told you about This was
something In excess lie submitted an
estimate OF s2o0O0.00o to complete that
work 10 first won't into the budget
estimate and Il made those estimates
look 80 like thunder that they pulled
10 out, and it was submitted rs a sep
arate estimate. with tho suggestion that
bonds ought to be Issued. that we ought
10 submit a referendum TO the people
and have bonds issued We did not do
&C. But T will tell you what we are
doing. We arc completing these ter
minals. We just completed a great one
the other day over here OF Gowanus
Bay, with a great grain elevator. We