REPORT

OF THE

COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY

OF THE

STATE OF MARYLAND

December 28, 1940,

To THE HONORABLE

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND:

I have the pleasure of submitting to you, in compliance with the
provisions of Section 9 of Article XIX of the Annotated Code of
Maryland, a report of the fiscal affairs of the State, covering trans-
actions for the period from October 1, 1939 to September 30, 1940,
or what is known as the fiscal year 1940.

It has been our desire that this report be a complete statement of
the fiscal transactions of the year, shown in as brief but as informative
style as possible.

It has been our experience in the past that persons having copies
of our reports have requested information that was already in their
hands. I am anxious that you familiarize yourselves with the con-
tents of our report, and that you feel that information you would
like to have will very likely be in the report. I recommend that the
first thing you do in reviewing the report is to look at the "Con-
tents," listed on the first page, just inside the cover. You will note
that there are 39 separate statements, most of them relating to
matters which are of particular interest and have a, special bearing
on our fiscal system.

The outstanding feature of the fiscal condition of the State is the
very comfortable surplus existing at the close of the year. It was
estimated a year ago that the surplus at September 30,1940, would
be $4,246,580.04. This report, Statement "D," between pages
24 and 25, shows the actual surplus as $6,151,955.41, or about
45% greater than the estimate. This increase was due to unexpect-
ed increases in certain revenues, particularly the tax on alcoholic