REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY 11

Fiscal Year Fiscal Year
1941 1952

Payments for Public Schools........$6,966,400.18 $34,846,772.18

Payments of State Grants to Polit-
ical Subdivisions of the State... 4,872,131.95 27,617,531.17

Payments for Welfare Categories 4,213,330.80 6,541,514.61

Payments for Maintaining our
Mental Hospitals..................... 1,983,838.18 10,606,512.75

Payments for Health Categories.. 554,771.84 4,243,218.64

Payments for Maintaining our
Tuberculosis Hospitals .............. 675,250.05 2,523,058.40

Bonded Debt Outstanding.......... 40,197,000.00 91,531,000.00

Bonded Debt Authorized but not

issued........................................... 1,458,000.00 67,877,000.00

State's Investment in Land, Build-
ings, Equipment, Bridges and
Roads............................................ 239,589,234.87 426,478,044.99

Assessable Basis for State Pur-
poses..........................................2,534,078,025.00 4,436,394,298.00

State Tax Rate (Per $100.00 on
Assessed Value of Real and Per-
sonal Property.)....................... 23.35c 6.25c

The foregoing figures should furnish food for thought. The
comparison of the State tax rates for the two years should be ampli-
fied because we will not begin to feel, until two or three years hence,
the impact of the taxes which it will be necessary to levy in the future
to service the debt created and authorized at the past several sessions
of the General Assembly. Assuming that the bonds which have
been authorized will be issued, and not including the $50,000,000
School Construction Loan which will be paid off by monies turned
into the State Treasury by the City and Counties as their respec-
tive shares of the loan received by them, the State tax levy necessary
in the year 1956 and subsequent years until 1962 will be more than
sixteen cents (16c) and this based on the all time high taxable basis
of over $5,758,000,000, the estimated base for 1954.

A considerable part of the State's revenue is collected directly
by the Comptroller's office. The cost of collection has been held
to the absolute minimum, and I feel sure that percentagewise the
expenses of administering these tax laws will be found to compare