REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY vii

that shall come before your honorable bodies. In the natural
growth of affairs the State has been compelled to meet those
necessities and we are recognizing more and more the duty the
State owes to its dependent insane, feeble-minded, the poor
and unfortunate in our hospitals and asylums, as well as the
education of our boys and girls. We are erecting fine build-
ings for their care, but that is done from money arising from
bond issues, while the maintenance of those institutions, neces-
sarily much more expensive as their usefulness and capacity
expands, must be borne from the general Treasury. Consider
the increased appropriations to the State Board of Health with
those of a few years ago, the Public Service Commission, the
appropriation of $300,000 per annum to State-aided roads,
and the many other appropriations. I am not uttering one
word of negation thereto, for I fully recognize the importance
of them all, but how will the State maintain the pace it is
going upon the present revenues? It cannot be done.

The question naturally arises as to the proper solution of
the problem. If our revenues increased in the ratio of our
expenditures, of course the question would be easily answered,
or if our appropriations could be diminished or maintained at
the present level without impairment to the best interest of the
State, the problem would likewise be readily solved. To levy
a tax for maintenance, other than road maintenance, I con-
ceive, will never be seriously considered. That class of prop-
erty upon which such a tax would fall is now already over-
burdened. Hence, the State must look for increased revenue
from some indirect source, or sources, which is now escaping
its fair and just proportion. It will be my pleasure to submit
later on in these remarks some measures from which, in my
judgment, additional revenues could be obtained that would
more equitably distribute the burden of taxation.

DISBURSEMENTS.

Your attention is invited to Statement "B," exhibiting in
detail the expenses of the State government, in which will be
found the character of disbursements, the Acts of Assembly
authorizing the same, together with amounts so paid, ag-