The Bonded Debt was.................................... 169,744,000.00

Bonds authorized but not yet issued................ 107,568,917.00

The Cash Balance in the Annuity Bond Fund

was....................................................... 7,956,259.54

The State tax rate for the taxable (calendar)

year 1956 is...................................................... 10.90 cents

I feel it in order to say something regarding the increased activity
in our Income Tax Division because of the amendments made to
our Income Tax Law to require withholding of tax by employers and
che filing of declarations of estimated tax in the case of income not
subject to withholding. These amendments have been very help-
ful in the administration of the law. It has been quite a job to
supplement the personnel and facilities of the Income Tax Division
to take care of the increase in the volume of work occasioned by the
amendments, but I believe that we have succeeded in doing this
with a minimum of inconvenience to the taxpayer. Included in the
additional work is the item of refunds to taxpayers where with-
holding and payments on an estimated basis caused overpayments.
Refunds have been paid to more than 150,000 taxpayers, and I am
sure you will realize this is quite an item in itself.

Our License Bureau has had to absorb the administration of
the Unfair Cigarette Sales Act passed at the 1956 Session of the
General Assembly, and while there was quite a volume of work in-
volved in seeing that all persons engaged in the business of selling
cigarettes, both at wholesale and retail, obtained the required
licenses, we were able to accomplish this work with but little incon-
venience to the persons engaged in the business of selling cigarettes.
We have had to do quite a bit of investigating work up to this time
but the amount done has necessarily been limited because of the
relatively small personnel of the Bureau. A considerable amount of
work remains to be done, and it will doubtless require a year or so
until all sections of the State have been visited by our investigators.
The work is not limited to seeing that all persons selling cigarettes
have the required licenses, but also that the prices at which they are
selling cigarettes are in conformity with the law.

As the business of the State has increased, the work of the Comp-
troller's Office has grown proportionately. We have endeavored to
keep pace with this growth and have availed ourselves of the benefits
to be received from improved methods of mechanized accounting,
etc.

The statements which follow have been prepared with the
object in mind of furnishing as complete a report of the fiscal activi-
ties of the State as possible, and I trust they will prove interesting
and informative to you. Please feel at liberty to call on me at any
time for any information you may want regarding our report or any
matters relating to the operation of the Comptroller's Office.

Respectfully submitted,

Comptroller.