The Daily Alaska empire., 1947-01-30
Olson Replies Z T0RNAD0ES Show Treasury HIT SECTIONS, Is Badly Beni S0UTHSTATES
Territory Is No longer on Cash Bdsis-SpeeiaI
 Funds Drained


 Senate yesterday afternoon brought conclusion that, although the Terri tory may not actually be broke, it's funds have run so low that loose- ness of its bookkeeping practices have shown up and it has gone off leash basis"
 A two-hour grilling of Olson ac- cented these points:
 l. All Territorial funds except a very few special accounts are car ried in the General Fund which is drawn on to meet all obligations.
 2. Separate funds are not set aside for appropriations aarmark- ed" for specific purposes. Instead such earmarked obligations are met from the general fund and there is not always on hand sufficient money to pay off should the earmarked appropriations be claimed in full at one time General running ex- penses of the Territory are defray- ed from the same pocket even when meeting them runs the treas ury balance below the total e. specific accounts.
 Bonds Are Gone
 3. Previously there has been no question that all such special ap- populations could be paid off in full at any time because the treas ury for several years has carried a surplus Of a million and a half or more dollars. At present there is no such surplus-even the $600,- eco that had been salted away in government bonds has now been converted to cash and spent
 l. Anticipated receipts are de- pended upon to keep the general fund LID to a level where warrants for set-aside as well as general ex- penoitures can he covered as they are presented-and, they have all ways been met, Olson stressed If all business of the Territory had stopped on last December 3l there would not have been enough money in the treasury to pay all out standing warrants and still meet demands in full for all specific appropriations. However, at that time there was more than half million dollars in taxes payable to the Territory
 Olson replied That's correct" when he was asked by Senator Gunnard Engebreth if he had used earmarked funds for other pur- poses because he felt that there would be money coming in to cover, and that money has come in.
 After Olson had stumbled through tangle of questions showing that sufficient money to cover all ear marked appropriations was not on hand last December 31, the Treas urer himself posed a query that headed the Senate's thinking in a new direction.
 If all specific appropriations were set aside, and the general fund then was "out," he asked, what should be cut down on? The legislature appropriates for specific purposes from estimated revenues, not from funds on hand, he point ed out
 He added that in the future, there would be balances drawn monthly and no account would be allowed to exceed it's own funds on hand He added, he did not consider that the Territory was in the red.
 At the end of the questioning, Senators emphasized that mo re- flection" upon Olson had been in tendsd. Senators O. D. Cochran and Norman R. Walker, who were among his most persistent interro- gators, joined in declaring that Olson's personal integrity had nev- CT heen in question. It was just question of whether pressure had been put on your office so that it became necessary for you to draw upon specific funds for cur rent expenses" Walker stated.
 Senator Cochran, however, con- demned the manner in which re- ports on the state of the treasury had been drafted for submission to the Legislature. The treasury was broke as of December 31, 1946, ie declared, and the report should show that it was broke "as warn- ing to these prolific spenders.'