XII REPORT OF THE

This balance of $306,850.67 includes taxes paid into the
Treasury on account of the levy for 1877, and payments on
account of levies of previous years received into the Treasury
after the 15th day of June, 1877, said day being the last
apportionment clay for the school year, 1876.

On the 15th of June, 1877, the balance of all the Public
School Tax which had been paid into the Treasury, and
remained undistributed, was apportioned to the several
counties, and the City of Baltimore, with the exception of
$8,346.80, received previous to that day on the levy for 1877,
and applicable by law to the school year 1877 the first ap-
portionment whereof, was made 1st October, 1877 .

With the exception of this sum of $8,346.80, the whole
balance of $306,850.67 was received into the Treasury sub-
sequent to the 15th June, 1877.

I have been thus particular in stating this account in great
detail, for the reason that an erroneous opinion had obtained
currency, that a balance of School Tax, amounting to a
large sum, was retaiaed in the Treasury from year to year.
It has been always the practice of the Comptroller's Office,
since the passage of the law originally establishing the
levy of Public School Tax, to apportion on the 15th of
June, which is the last apportionment day of the school
year, all the Public School Tax remaining in the Treasury
from all levies, except so much as may have been received
before that day, on account of the levy of the current year,
the first apportionment for which current year, does not take
place until the first day of October in said year.

The discussion of this subject in several School Boards,
and the currency given to the opinion above referred to, and
which was rendered plausible, if not originally induced, by
the error which had occurred, from time to time, in the publi-
cation of the statement "L" as originally constituted in 1866,
and continued by alterations and additions in its numerous
and complicated items from that year down to 18*76, deter-
mined the Comptroller to employ a special clerk to detail all
the receipts and disbursements of the School Tax from its
inception in 1865, to the end of the fiscal year 1876, and to
reconstruct statement "L" for the present report on a new