Seward seaport record., 1950-03-28
The Territory Is Out of the Red

'The Territory is temporarily out of the red and the large number of unpaid warrants which have been accumulating in the Auditors Of- flee over a period of months are being paid in their regular order This was the statement issued last week by the Territorial Treasurer. The Treasurer in elaborating on the statement, exlained that all monies borrowed from the banks have been repaid except interest ac- crued thereon. This, he explained, as was understood by the banks at the time the loans were made, can not be paid at this time because there is no appropriation for that purpose at the present time and the accrued interest on these loans will not be paid until the next assem- ply make provision therefor. It was agreed between the banks and the treasurer when the money was ad- vanced that the Board of Admin istr; tion would suggest to the in- coming Legislature that adequate provision for the payment of this interest be made. The Board has promised to make the request.
 The treasurer advised the Board of Administration that after the payment of all loans and of all ou,- standing warrants approximately a half-million dollars would be on hand which might be applied to the liquidation in part of the appropri- ations which were frozen" last June when the financial plight of the Territory became evident The Board has acted on the treasurer s suggestion and to date has un- frozen various amounts. among them s25,000 for the use of the Statehood Committee to be paid out at the rate of S5,000 per month; S85,000 for the University of Alas ka; S50,000 for aid to hospitals ana clinics; S75,00O for the Territorial Department of Fisheries; S25,00O for the Alaska Housing Authority; and few small amounts for various purposes.
 AS of this date the Territory is on pay-as-you-go basis and will be able to run along that way for some time to come
 The revenues which have made this possible come largely from the new taxes imposed by the 1949 Legislature. Approximately S387, 800 has come from the tobacco tax; S1 1926, 900 from the so-called Fresh Fish Tax" the larger part of which should more appropriately be called Fish Pack Tax; the newly enact ed trap tax has yielded in excess of one-million dollars which has been paid into the Territorial Trea- sury, although some five-hundred thousand dollars of this amount should properly be credited to 1949 income
 Tax litigation is rapidly coming to an end. But one case remains pending in the courts; this involves the newly enacted property tax. All other newly enacted tax measures which were taken to the court have been disposed of. The income tax case was decided in favor of the Territory by Judge Folta of the First Division and his decision was sustained by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco The trap tax litigation, also decid- ed by Judge Folta, resulted in a fifty-fifty decision. The court held that the basic tax on the trap was proper but held against the tax i'm posed on fish caught in the traps, expressing the view that this con- stituted practically confiscation The decision was accepted by both parties. The trap operators paid the amounts due under the new law