The Sidney herald., 1958-02-06

glass house and who does not
There is hardly occasion for the
pot to call the kettle black.
Where the responsibility for the
present fiscal dilemms belongs is
aptly summarized editorially by
the Great Falls Tribune:
who's to blame? Everybody's
to blame, including the voters
who condone a lot of dreamy
fiscal thinking by their elected
stewards in both the executive
and legislative branches of the
state government"
This cuts right to the heart of
il. So long as our legislatures,
yielding to pressure groups, ap-
propriate beyond the reasonable
capacity of the state treasury to
meet these disbursements, so long
as that is done the state govern
ment runs the risk of insolvent
operating funds. Yes, indeed,
economy is the cry at every leg
iSlative session and economy is
the cry of every political plat
form, but the hitch is that the
economy should apply to you but
not me. AS for me, / need more
and more and more.
l reported the legislature back
in the days when the state general
fund was habitually in the red.
Now and then the legislature
would provide for converting the
warrant debt into bonded debt.
Thus, technically, the state gen.
eral fund was back in the black.
But actually all that was done
was to change the form of in
debtedneSS. And by the next
meeting of the assembly the state
again would be using red ink.
In those days as now the state
governments operating income
was sufficient to balance with ap-
propriations. New taxes were add
ed but then as now additional
revenue stirred pressure groups
to even greater energy, most of
them ignoring the fact that their
pet interest was not the only ac-
tivity the state had to finance.
Still Montana piles on more
taxes, and / could name officials
at the seat of government here in
Helena whose zeal for finding
yer more sources of taxation
was not surpassed by the zeal of
the Crusaders in trying to wrest
the Holy Land from the infidels.
How long can this continue?
We think the state government
is having fiscal troubles today.
But rs DR. 80 years ago the fiscal
troubles of today would not have
seemed like troubles at all. State
financing was really tough then
John E. Erickson, elected and re-
elected governor on the appeal
ing pledge that he would get the
state out of debt, didn't have a
chance to make good on that
pledge-not because he didn't
try but because even the most
essential state expense was great
er than the available revenue.
1t wasn't because legislatures of
both parties didn't try. Optimists
among them who thought they
saw an oasis in the fiscal desert
were forced to realize it was only
a mirage.
But ultimately times improved.
in the administration of
Gov. Sam c. Ford (1941-49) it
no longer necessary to make
a property tax levy for the gen
eral fund. This levy has not
been made since, but it appears
necessary again this year.
During the Ford administration
the general fund accumulated a
growing surplus. This brought
back the pressure groups with
increased vigor. AS the 1945 leg
islative session began, the general
fund surplus was about SIS, 900, 600,
and the pressure boys and girls
were right there after it. To pre-
vent dissipation of this surplus
and to conserve it for the future,
the assembly, with commendable
impounded the surplus
by appropriating it for building
projects which could not be start
ed during the biennium- Thos
these appropriations, being I'M
spent, reverted to the general
fund.
In the 1948 gubernatorial cam
paign one candidate went around
the state complaining because there
was a general fund surplus. Why,
he demanded, was this money
being kept in the sock? Why
wasn't it being spent? Now it has
been spent. And like in the good
old days, the general fund, and
the university millage fund along
it, is back in the red.
The prevailing public indiffer-
ence the public's neglect to
back UP legislators and executive
officers of the state who struggle
against the tide of mushrooming
governmental costs - that as
the fundamental blame lies
for the fiscal situation in which
our state government finds it.
self today.
But the situation is not neces-
sarily bad. If this jolt teaches us
The inherent lesson of this fis-
cal crisis, it will be a good thing
N the end - if we heed the les