XIV REPORT OF THE

building of an addition to the State House as well as
some increase in the appropriations over those of last
year, which will increase the disbursements when com-
pared with the disbursements of 1885, the last non-
Legislative year, and in order to make our calculation
a safe one, suppose we estimate the average annual in-
crease of the Sinking Funds at $400,000.00.

On this basis the estimate would stand thus :
Amount of debt for Avhich there is a tax

provided.......................... $4,190,000 00

Amount of present Sinking Fund...... 1,851,290 18

Bilance of debt after deducting Sinking

Fund. ............................ $2,338,709 82

Estimated increase in 6 years at $100,000

a year ........................... $2,400,000 00

And we have a sum more than sufficient to discharge
the debt.

But it must be remembered as the Sinking Fund in-
creases the increment will increase also, so that it is
safe to say that in less than five years from this time
should the present revenues be maintained and our
Legislatures are as economical and conservative as the
past two have been, and the present tax be continued,
we will be able to take off all State taxes except those
for educational purposes, for at that time we should
have in the Treasury under the conditions which I have
named, the money or its equivalent with which to pay
the entire debt for which taxes are now collected.

This is what I believe can be done with a continuance
of present revenues and without an increase in expendi-
tures, but whether it will be done or should be done are
questions that the future must determine.

By the time the next Legislature meets we will have
a considerable portion of the State debt in the Sinking
Fund.

While it might in some aspects seem desirable to take
off at one time the whole State Tax of 8 3/4 cents, yet I
think the fairest and most equitable mode of taxation