Paid to the Deputy Comptroller.... Deputy Treasurer Commissary General..... Adjutant General..... Judge Advocate General..... Private Secretary to Governor....... And add to this the aggregate amount paid for clerk hire, postage, stationary, paper, &c., in all the departments of the government for 1837.................... 1,500 00 1,300 00 700 00 1,125 00 150 00 600 00 17,961 83 Total, 61 63477 117,064 13 The Legislative expenditures for the last year $178,698 90 Making the aggregate of.... And this sum, drawn from the Treasury, is separate and distinct from the several amounts paid to the keepers of the prisons, Indian agencies, apprehension of criminals, brigade and division inspectors, Superintendent of the State House, printing for the State, Courts Martial, cleaning the walks in and around the Capitol, support of the Deaf and Dumb Institutions, keepers of the arsenals, Librarian's salary, contingencies for library, wolf bounties, &c., which latter disbursements, in all amount to the additional sum of $233,066 35 Making an aggregate of over four hundred and eleven thousand dollars..... And to this may still be added the sum drawn for deficiencies in the lateral canals, and other incidental expenses, making, in all, as drawn in a single year, on warrants upon the treasury for the support of the Government,, the round sum of............ $411,765 25 $539,038 66 In Pennsylvania, there is scarcely a less amount of annual disbursements incurred, as will be seen by the following Exhibit: Surveyor General's office. Miscellaneous-including salary of Librarian, Print ing, Militia Inspectors, salaries and disbursements paid from the Treasury; Keepers, Wardens, and officers of the Penitentiary; relief appropriations, &c. &c., deducting amount paid for Common Schools, of $161,838 55, stands...... Leaving an aggregate of... 137,441 45 $387,305 36 The foregoing is not designed for strict accuracy, but intended merely as an outline of the principal expenditures annually incurred in the two great leading States of the Union. Many profitable deductions may be drawn from this summary view of the public disbursements of other States, when brought in comparison with those of our own; and it will be readily discovered that the contrast is somewhat striking, considering the near approximation we bear in point of population to the two great leading States here named. Let us now bring up Ohio. And how stand the receipts and disbursements of our own State, and what relation do we bear to our worthy sisters in the light of public economy? Let facts speak for themselves. By a reference to the items of expenditure in the foregoing Exhibit, it will be observed that the Warrants upon the Treasury of Ohio for the year just closed, amount to $190,936 62 5; a considerable portion of which is made up of amounts paid on appropriations for the new Penitentiary, the Lunatic Asylum, Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the Institution for the Blind, Counties' apportionment of taxes, Geological Survey, &c. Deducting these, and some other items not properly belonging to the ordinary disbursements of the Government, and the amount of expenditures will stand at less than ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS for the last fiscal year. A recapitulation of the separate items of expenditure will exhibit the several sums drawn upon warrants for the support of the Government in each of the States referred to. But so minute an examination of the subject would not be profitable on this occasion. In New York, for 1836, the salaries of the State officers, and the pay of the Judiciary department, including office expenses, as will be seen, amount to SIXTY-ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR DOLLARS AND SEVENTY-SEVEN CENTS. In Pennsylvania, the annual pay of the Judiciary department alone, is Eighty-three thousand three hundred eighty-seven Dols, & seventeen Cents! and, including the salaries of the State officers, and all office expenses, and also including the public printing account, there was paid for 1836 the sum of ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE DOLLARS AND SIXTY CENTS!! The pay of the State officers, and contingencies, alone, amount to over THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS PER ANNUM. Showing, most clearly, that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania nearly doubles the annual expenses of New York for government purposes, and about triple those of Ohio for similar objects. In Virginia, the annual expenditures of the officers of the State Government, (though as a State it is now our junior in wealth and population,) considerably exceed those of Ohio. Kentucky, also, though containing but little more than half our population, redeemed, in Treasury warrants, Two HUNDRED and twenty-nine thousand six hundred and ninety-one dollars and fifty-four cents for the year 1834, being more than SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS Over the amount drawn from the Treasury of Ohio for similar objects. This expenditure has no doubt considerably increased since that period, although this office is in possession of no particular information of its extent. Many of the Southern and Southwestern States present a still greater ratio of annual disbursements than any of the number to which allusion has been made. The aggregate of each State will at least afford a compliment to the practical economy of Ohio. The public printing for New York, at her last legislative session, amounted to upwards of Thirty-five thousand Dollars; for Pennsylvania, rising of Twenty-four thousand Dollars; and for the last session of Ohio, between Seventeen and Eighteen thousand Dollars. In this State, the annual compensation of all the Government officers, exclusive of those in the Judiciary department, amounts to Six thousand three hundred and seventy-five Dollars; and when all the contingencies are added, they will not make up a sum exceeding Eleven thousand five hundred Dollars per annum. The following will show the different sums paid in each State for their respective legislative sessions: ..... The pay of the members and officers of the New York Legislature, amounted, for the last legislative session, to $117,064 13 Pay of the Pennsylvania Legislature, its officers and contingencies, for the like session. Pay of the General Assembly of Ohio, its officers, Clerks, &c., for the session of 1836 & 37............... ..... 134,000 81 49,888 55! In this, as in all other objects of the public expenditure, the State of Ohio has been singularly economical and prudent; and it is for the general reputation we now maintain abroad, and for the caution we are known to observe, in all that concerns the disbursement of the public moneys, that our State, at this moment, sustains an enviable rank in the great scale of the Union. Upon the high credit we maintain, our Fund Commissionors, even in the midst of the general crash in the moneyed concerns of the nation, so recently felt in the eastern cities, could obtain an advantageous loan, which was effected for half a million of dollars, at a premium of $12,57 on the hundred. The report of the Fund Commissioners will present the Legislature with the present condition of the public funds committed to their charge, and the disposition they have made of the loan alluded to. It is not the purpose of this report to touch upon the business and duties of others who stand in no way connected with the financial operations of this Department. The mode of drawing and disbursing the public funds, set apart for particular purposes by the Legislature, will sometimes leave an appa 3-A. S. rent want of agreement between the statements of this and the office of the Fund Commissioners. Such a circumstance was discovered at the last session of the General Assembly, and made the subject of comment by one of its committees; but which was subsequently explained, as it is to be hoped, to the entire satisfaction of the two Houses and to that of the people of this State. Discrepancies will indeed sometimes appear in the different reports, which it is natural enough to suppose, without proper explanation, may be brought in conflict with each other; and with all kindness of feeling towards the members of your honorable body, strengthened by the confidence I feel in the fidelity of the public acts of this Department, I shall ever hope to be ready to invite, rather than to resist, inquiry into its administration, and always to stand ready to give all the information in the power of this office to afford, on the state and condition of the Public Revenue. Suggestions have frequently been made favoring an improvement in our system of public accounts; and various undigested plans have been named for securing a greater simplicity and uniformity in the books and entries of the different financial departments. But with all due deference to the superior sagacity and judgment of those who would propose innovations upon the established modes of keeping up the public accounts, I would most respectfully beg leave to differ with them in the propriety of adventuring, suddenly, upon any new and untried experiments, that will materially change the order that now prevails in the different financial operations. Some incidental improvements such as changing the mode of making transfers, and keeping each fund separate and distinct, charging each with its legitimate portion of receipts, and crediting it with its proper disbursements and expenditures, has been successfully introduced; and others may hereafter suggest themselves, in the regular order of business, that will not affect or revolutionize a SYSTEM which has grown into established forms and modes, difficult to remodel or change without repealing numerous laws, and enacting as many more for their regulation. Many improvements, plausible in theory, are difficult in practice; and he who imagines that he can dive into an office, embracing so varied a collection of public accounts, and containing more than sixty different kinds of entry, and reform its operations in a single day, will fiud at the end of a half-year's labor, that he has materially underrated the difficulties of the job, and be made to understand that a skillful financier is not to be educated in a week or a month. Our Canal tolls are now a fruitful source of revenue to the State. They have more than realized the public expectation during the fiscal year just closed. The aggregate receipts from the Ohio and Miami Canals for the past year, up to the 1st of November last, to which period the returns of the respective Collectors have been made, amount, as will be seen, to $99,770 72 9 over the sum realized from the like source for 1836; and, from the estimate I have been enabled to make of the entire receipts of the year, up to the close of canal navigation, extending into the present month, they will exceed the tolls of the previous year more than ONE HUNdred and seven tHOUSAND DOLLARS; and consequently, considerably exceed the estimated receipts, as pre sented in my financial report in March last. This unexpected accumulation of tolls, at a time of great commercial embarrassment and distress throughout the Eastern States, brought on by wild, unrestrained, and extravagant schemes of overtrading and speculation; when a severe pressure has been operating upon most of the moneyed interests of the country, and crippling, in a measure, the active industry of the nation, must serve as a marked compliment to the projectors of these great works, and to the fidelity and skill with which this important branch of the public interest is now conducted. The moneyed institutions of the State have also become something of a source of public revenue. The tax upon bank dividends, and dividends declared by insurance and bridge companies, as will be seen by a reference to the revenue receipts embodied in this report, amounts, for the past year, to $64,931 53. In my report to the Legislature for 1836, the amount received from this source of revenue was stated at $74,892 43 3; nearly ten thousand dollars more than the receipts from the same source for the last year. This diminution of the revenue derived from the banks, may be readily accounted for from the very sudden and simultaneous suspension of specie payments, and the consequent diminution in the amount of their business and dividends. And whether these institutions, and their respective friends, will, in coming time, unite their exertions to bring about that reform in the system which seems to be imperiously called for by the popular sense of the country, and aid in incorporating that salutary provision in their respective charters, making the holders of their stock individually responsible for their corporate debts, so loudly demanded, for the permanent security of individual rights, and the public protection, remains to be disclosed by subsequent events, and future history. Feeling impelled by a high sense of public duty, as well as in obedience to the laws of the State, making it the business of this department of the Government, to "make such remarks on the finances as may be deemed proper for the consideration of the Legislature," I cannot permit the present occasion to pass without alluding to the important fact, that by legislative sanction, a considerable portion of the public moneys are now deposited in the different banks of this State. The Legislature, in admitting this provision into the laws, acted, no doubt, upon the reasonable presumption that these institutions were sound and solvent; and, in justice to the banks themselves, a different conclusion should not be hastily drawn. They are generally conducted with as much judgment and precaution, perhaps, as is usual with institutions of the kind in this country; but past events have tended to shake the public confidence in their ability to meet all their engagements: and the inquiry may here be made, with great justice and force, whether the Public Funds, those sacred deposits derived from the hard earnings of industry, should ever know the term insecurity, |