Year: 1878




cordance with the law, and therefore
all the appropriations to the cOlored
schools, &c, h id been illegally taken
out of the school fund. In this the
School Commissioners figure out the
amount of S504, ,340.66 nominaly due
the school fund by the general fund
and yet the fact is certain that the
white schools have gotten Just what
the Legislature made provision for,
the error at the bottom of the diff.
Guilty being the failure of the Ways
and Means Committee in 1874 to EN-
body its intent in the rovisons of
the General Appropriation bill.


It will therefore be seen th;rt if the
school fund has really sustained no
inJustices and If the anoHnt ciaimed
to be due is to be paid, it VIII have
to be raised by general taxation, in
which case more than halfthe amount
will have to be paid by Baltimore
city, as it pays more than half the
taxes. While large number Of
members are opposed to the pending
bill or any other legislative ratifica
tion OF illegal acts, no matter how
technical the illegality may have
been, there is no prospect that an ex-
ira tax of ten cents on the one hun
dred dollars will be imposed to pay
the claim. The plan that meets
with most favor is for the Ways and
Means Committee to recognize the
technical legality of the claim by
providing for its payment, levying
in addition, however, only such
amounts as will be necessary to raise
the whole amount up to the usual
sum appropriated for school purposes.


HEAVY BALANCES DUE THE


SCHOOLS.


Another matter, which was the
original cause of the disputes between
| tine County School Boards and the
Comptroller, is the mode of appor-
tionment adopted by the Comptrol-
i Ter. If language has any meaning,
| there can be no doubt that the law
provides that at each quarterly APP
p0rtionment all the money in the
| Treasury to the credit of the school
fund shall be distributed. Instead oI
that, Comptroller Woolford adopted
plan of his own. He made an esti
mate of the receipts to be expected
from the school levy during tn,
year, and distributed II fourth of tina
estimated amount at each quarterl,
appOrtionment, but he worked hi
system so as to carry big balance t.
the credit of the school fund, swelling
the amounts Of deposits in the banks
in which The State funds are kept.


While the county boards were il
the greatest straits for want of funds
it naturally aroused their indignation
to find that the COmptroller's repUr
showed a balance of 5000, ,662.05 to thC
credit OF the School Fund at the clost
of the fiscal year of 1875. The Comp
troller has since explained that thi:
was only an apparent balance, ant
that the fact,that no such balance WA
in the treasury was one Of the rea
sons why he reconstructed the state
mpnt of the school fund receipts an(
expenditures in his report for 1877
but even this corrected statemen
shows balance of S306, ,S50.67. 1t wa
the desire of the school boards to ge
hold of this balance due them, anC
which they needed, that led them t.
bring suit against the Comptroller
resulting in decision of the cour
stigmatizing his conduct as illegal il
every particular.


. 1t will be seen from this review G
the subject that the matter is a com
plicated one, but it is one that can b
adjusted without the passage of tn
pending bill ratilying and confirmin
the illegal acts of the Comptroller.
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