Quarterly Statements of Tolls, Water Rents and Fines, collected at the several Collectors' 52 . The undersigned has the honor to submit the following statement of the Receipts and Disbursements at the Treasury, for the year ending on the 15th November, 1849, with such remarks on the Finances of the State as are deemed proper for the consideration of the General Assembly. This exhibit is presented under the following heads : I. A general statement of the Receipts and Disbursements at the Treasury during the year 1849. II. An estimate of the Receipts and Disbursements of the several Funds during the year 1850. III. A statement, in detail, of the Receipts and Expenditures of each Fund, showing the balances in the Treasury on the 15th November, 1849. IV. A synopsis of the several appropriations, the amount drawn from the Treasury, and the balance of each appropriation unexpended. V. Receipts and Disbursements through the Department of Public Works, and the balances of the several Funds in the Treasury. VI. Condition of the State Debt; showing the amount of Bonds canceled during the year, and the amount of the several stocks outstanding on the 15th November, 1849. VII. Appendix, containing statistical tables. 1 I. GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES DURING THE YEAR 1849. RECEIPTS. Taxes collected on real and personal property, on the Grand list of 1848, including arrears on delinquent and forfeited lands,-----$1,238,648 02 Taxes on professions, pedlers' licenses, foreign insurance compa nies, and auction duties, State tax on joint stock companies, Brokers' licenses, 19,257 33 7,623 30 3,409 35 Tax on banks, - 53,862 58 Tax on insurance and bridge companies, 1,829 65 Canal tolls, water rents, and fines paid into the State treasury, 720,275 42 Dividends on turnpike and canal stocks owned by the State,- 38,049 10 Principal of surplus revenue paid by the counties, 183,426 17 Interest on surplus revenue paid by the counties, 68,336 71 Canal lands sold-paid into the treasury, 42,195 04 National road tolls received, - 46,253 38 Western Reserve and Maumee road tolls paid into the treasury,- 10,898 08 Total amount of receipts during the year 1849,--- Amount applicable to the disbursements of 1849, EXPENDITURES. 5,754 81 1,488 21 $2,511,119 37 426,451 87 $2,937,571 24 Bills drawn for appropriations, and paid at the treasury,- Common school fund distributed and paid to the several counties, Repairs on State canals and Muskingum Improvement — paid checks of board of public works, 440,089 90 Repairs and contracts on the Western Reserve and Maumee turn Expenses of fund commissioners, Incidental payments and credits, - 758 34 877 95 131,650 25 Total amount of ordinary expenditures during the year 1849,----$2,176,681 04 Total amount of disbursements from the treasury, for all purposes, Balance of the several funds in the treasury, on the 15th November, 1849, 73,804 55 $2,383,135 84 $555,435 40 This statement exhibits the finances of the State in a sound and flourishing condition. It was feared, for a time, that the prevalence of the cholera and the general failure of the wheat crop throughout the State, would greatly reduce the business and tolls upon our public works. The result has shown that the tolls paid into the treasury, upon all the public works of the State, with the dividends upon the canal and turnpike stocks owned by the State, fall below the receipts of last year only $35,723 55. This proves that the failure for a season of one source of wealth and revenue, will, under ordinary circumstances, be supplied by the other great streams of productive wealth with which our State abounds. The only particulars in which the receipts have fallen below the estimates, presented in the last annual report from this office, are the canal tolls and the surplus revenue. The same causes operated to produce the decrease in the receipts of both funds. The punctuality in the payment of the taxes levied for the support of the State government and institutions, and the payment of the interest upon the State debt, furnishes gratifying evidence of the prosperity of the State, and the good faith of our citizens. The total value of taxable property on the grand list of 1848, was $421,067,991. On this sum there was levied for State purposes, $1,265,769 26, of which, the sum of $1,223,122 79 was collected and paid into the State treasury, during the year, leaving only $42,646 47 for the delinquences and losses, and the expenses of collection, being less than three and one half per cent. on the amount of the levy. The increase of the expenditures during the year 1849, from the general revenue, was occasioned principally by the large appropriations which were made for the new State House, for the payment of the General Assembly, and for State printing. The receipts of the year, from all sources, exceed the expenditures by the sum of $334,438 33. The special school and trust funds received, which are an addition to the domestic debt of the State, amount to $48,694 71. This sum being deducted, leaves a balance of the receipts, properly applicable to the reduction of the State debt, of $285,743 62. In addition to the balances of the several funds in the treasury, amounting to the sum of $555,435 40, there remains in the hands of the fund commissioners, applicable to the payment of the interest becoming due on the first of January, 1850, and for exchanges and expenses of the agency in New York, the sum of $73,804 55, and for the purchase or redemption of State bonds, the sum of $208,312 08, appropriated from surplus revenue repaid by counties. The operation of our present system of taxation is highly satisfactory. No important changes are deemed necessary. The following table exhibits the amount of taxable property, real and personal, on the grand list, for the last six years; the rate of taxation for State purposes; the amount of State taxes levied thereon; and the net amount paid into the State treasury each year: In the table published in the annual report of last year, page 9, an item was omitted, which would have reduced slightly the net amount of the State taxes collected. The correction has been made in the above table. Settlement with the county treasurers not being made for the taxes of the past year, the amount collected in 1849 is estimated at the rate per cent. of the collections of the five preceding years. This table shows, that the total amount of the taxes levied upon the property of the State, real and personal, during the six years, amounted to the sum of $6,856,975 06, of which, the net amount of $6,661,971 87 has been collected and paid into the State treasury. The difference between the amount levied and the net amount paid into the treasury is only $195,003 19, which is the total amount of the losses, delinquencies and costs of collection, being less than three per cent. upon the gross amount levied during the six years. Ohio may well challenge a comparison with any other State in the promptitude of her citizens in the payment of their taxes, and the simplicity and economy of her financial system. The amendment of the school laws which authorizes each district to levy a school tax, should be modified. The State levies a school tax-the counties are required to levy an additional school tax, and the townships have power to levy a township school tax. This it seems to me, is a sufficient extension and distribution of the power to levy taxes for this purpose. There appears to be no necessity for the several districts to levy taxes for the support of schools. If any addition to the State and county school taxes is necessary, it should be uniform throughout the township. It is not practicable to levy the district taxes upon the duplicate without imposing upon county auditors great additional labor, and rendering it difficult to avoid errors in the duplicate. It is important to require all taxes to be levied upon the general list or duplicate of the county, but there should not be a multiplicity of local and district taxes, if they can be avoided. The twenty-sixth section of the amendatory tax law of the 8th of February, 1847, as amended by the Sth section of the Act of the 22d February, 1848, required the amount of the annual rents reserved in leases in fee, or for one or more lives, or for a term exceeding fourteen years, to be retuned by the assessors and placed on the duplicate at a principal sum, the interest of which at the legal rate of six per cent. per annum would produce a sum equal to such annual rents. In accordance with this law, more than one million and a half was brought upon duplicate in the city of Cincinnati alone. the |