Accounts lateral inheritance tax on real property where there has been Finance no administration and no accounts passed. These books should be public records and kept in the office subject to inspection at all times, as other public records. I would recommend that all clerks of circuit courts, registers of wills, state's attorneys and sheriffs be furnished by the state with plain but comprehensive cash books, in which all receipts and expenditures shall appear in classified form, and that said books shall become record books of said offices, and the officials shall be required to keep them neatly and up to date. I also recommend that the auditor be charged with the duty of determining what books are essential for the proper conduct of such offices, and in order to insure a uniform system of keeping such cash accounts so as to be able to show at any time a statement of the account with the state, that the auditor be charged with the duty of preparing said books after a manner most consistent with the uses for which they are intended." Md. Smith, 1 Ja 02, p.33-35 Correspondence is submitted relating to the suspension of State Treasurer Stowers for the misuse or loaning out of funds intrusted to his care. Stowers resigned and a special election was held to fill the vacancy. Miss. Longino, 7 Ja 02, p.4-11 "I regret to have to advise the Legislature of the temporary suspension of the First National Bank of Austin, which was the agency employed by the state treasurer and secretary of state, as I am informed, to collect remittances to them... I beg to assure the Legislature that, in my judgment, there is not a taint of dishonesty or dishonor on the part of either of the officials named. Each of them is under a large and entirely solvent bond to the state."... Tex. Sayers, 6 Ag 01, p.5 bonds Official "In former years the bond of the treasurer of state was $300,000. This, through the discretion lodged with the chief executive, has been recently increased to $800,000. For more than six months the balance in the treasury of the state has exceeded $1,000,000, and I am of the opinion that the treasurer's bond ought to be approximately large. I am also of the opinion that this bond should be furnished at the expense of the state. The market value of the bond now furnished by the state treasurer is $4000 per annum. The present treasurer actually Finance paid $1500 in cash for his bond of $300,000. The proposition on on state Interest" In view of the large treasury balance much of the time, "I am informed that the state receives no interest on the balances in the various banks, nor has it ever received such interest. Why, I do not know. One treasurer has followed the example of his predecessor in distributing the funds of the state to the various banks throughout the state who have had at times large amounts on deposit on which they have made money, but for which they have paid no interest. This is all right for the banks, but the state is deprived of an income which every business man under the same circumstances would insist on. If the average balance in the treasury is $2,250,000, an interest of 2% would net the state the important sum of $45,000 a year."... N. J. Murphy, 21 Ja 02, p.8 State debts. The taxable values have increased $43,500,000 in the last three years, and the credit of no state is better than that of Georgia, she having had no difficulty in borrowing to pay arrearages due her teachers up to the limit prescribed in the Constitution, at the remarkably low rate of 2%, and this, too, from her own banks, not a dollar having been borrowed outside of her own borders. Ga. Candler, 23 0 01, p.4 There are some old bonds of the state outstanding to the amount of $6394, which are supposed to be lost and will never be presented for payment. They were issued from 1835 to 1846. The total actual indebtedness of the commonwealth is $1,000,000, represented by two bond issues of $500,000 each. There are also obligations against the state in the form of educational bonds, of which the interest only can be paid, the bonds themselves being perpetual and irredeemable. This interest is paid State debts out of the sinking fund each year, and is devoted to educational Finance purposes. Total educational bonds, $2,477,596.86, Ky. Beckham, 7 Ja 02, p.3-4 Aggregate debt, Sep. 30, 1901, $6,509,326.13; net debt after productive stocks held by the state and sinking funds are deducted, $2,662,344.29; net debt Jan. 10, 1900, $2,888,042.95; decrease, $225,698.66, notwithstanding an increase by the Legislature of 1900, by an issue of bonds to the amount of $500,000. "It will be seen from the above financial statement that, including the stock and bonds of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, the state treasury proper is in possession of assets which, if they could be sold judiciously, for an amount representing their full value, should be sufficient to cancel the state debt. As a business proposition, it is advisable to pay this debt by selling the state assets, as I do not regard it as a wise financial policy to continue the indebtedness of the state any longer than a sufficient amount can be realized to pay the same from the proceeds of an advantageous sale, and to that end I am in favor of disposing of the state stock of the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., the annuity bond of the Northern Central Railway Co. and the state's holdings in the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, whenever conditions are such as to afford the state's officers an opportunity to make sale of same at their full value. In offering the state's holdings in the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, due regard should be had for the interests of the people dependent on its maintenance as affording transportation facilities and competition, which otherwise they might not have." Md. Smith, 1 Ja 02, p.4-5 "The gross debt of the commonwealth, actual and contingent, Jan. 1, 1902, was $77,696,635.30. Of this amount, $25,738,223.30 is represented by loans which have been issued for state purposes exclusively, and $51,958,412, the total contingent debt, by loans which have been issued for the benefit of cities and towns, and which will be repaid ultimately by them to the commonwealth. Applicable to the loans issued for strictly state purposes, there are accumulations in sinking funds amounting to $13,278,169.69, making the net actual state debt $12,460,053.61. For the redemption of the loans included in the contingent debt Finance there are accumulations in sinking funds amounting to $3,312,853.17, which amount, applied to the principal of the loans, makes the net contingent debt $48,645,558.83. Of the net contingent debt, $1,101,082.49 falls on certain cities and towns in which armories have been built, and the remainder, $47,544,476.34, on the cities and towns in the metropolitan water, sewerage and parks districts." The net actual state debt for five years is as follows: The Legislature in 1896, for the purpose of raising revenue to carry on the state government for 1896 and 1897, authorized the issuance of $400,000 of 5% bonds payable in 10 years, with the option given the state to redeem or pay off same in five years from their issuance. Up to Oct. 1, 1901, $338,000 of said bonds were presented and paid. The Legislature of 1900 authorized $1,000,000 of statehouse bonds. No part of said bonds have been sold. There have been sufficient funds in the treasury, not otherwise needed, to meet all expenses of the new capitol to date. "I cherish the hope that the statehouse will be carried to completion without the sale of any part of the bonds originally intended to be the exclusive source of funds for the building; but whether my hopes in this respect shall be realized or not will depend, of course, largely on the action of the Legislature in its appropriation of the revenues now on hand and to accrue to the state from the ordinary revenue bearing sources." Miss. Longino, 7 Ja 02, p.2-3 "The last instalment of Civil War debt, amounting to $71,000, fell due on the 1st of January 1902, and its payment marked the extinguishment of the entire issue of the war bonds, which amounted in 1886 to $3,395,200. The only debt of the state amounts to $48,000, represented by certificates to the commissioners of the Agricultural College. Aside from its ordinary revenues, the state has 1887 shares of the stock of the united railroads and canal companies of New State debts Jersey, the market value of which is about $530,247, and assets Finance in the sinking fund, which the state treasurer reported as amounting to $198,981.52."... N. J. Voorhees, 14 Ja 02, p.11 Total debt Sep. 30, 1901, $10,075,660, divided as follows: canal debt, $8,500,660; national guard public defense debt, $900,000; Adirondack park debt, $675,000. Sinking fund for retirement of canal debt $1,866,526.94. N. Y. Odell, 1 Ja 02, p.3-4 A sinking fund was created for the purpose of securing money with which to pay the funded debt as it became due, the annual interest on the same, and the interest on the irreducible debt of the state. Total receipts, including balance, for 1901, $771,033.63; total disbursements, $566,716.72, including a payment of $250,000 on the funded debt; balance, $204,316.91. On account of the reduction of the funded debt of the state on the 1st of July next, by $250,000, and of its entire extinction on the 1st day of July 1903, and the consequent reduction in payments for interest, the present levy for sinking fund purposes, which is three tenths of a mill, may be reduced by nearly one half, or to eighteen hundredths of a mill. "The only reason why this levy can not be entirely dispensed with is that the irreducible debt of the state remains forever and money must be provided with which to pay the annual interest on it. The irreducible debt, amounting to $4,684,536.09, needs a word of explanation. In the early history of Ohio, large tracts of land were donated by Congress to the state for school, ministerial and university purposes. They were afterward sold and their proceeds paid into the sinking fund, with the understanding that the state would forever pay to the beneficiaries of these lands 6% interest annually on the moneys so received and used by her, and that the principal of the debt should never be payable."... 0. Nash, 6 Ja 02, p.5-7 Statehouse construction loan bonds, $2,978,000; sinking fund, $389,436.61. R. I. Kimball, 7 Ja 02, p.6-7 "In my message of the last two years I have on each occasion called your attention to the subject of certain bonds which, by the treasurer's report, appear as part of the old debt of the state, but which are now, under the act of 1896, no longer fundable by the treasurer without the action of your honorable bodies... 'By act of 1896 the treasurer is forbidden to pay, consolidate or |