Page:Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia 1849.djvu/16

Rh the Legislature of 1847, and more especially, as the reliability of that Report was virtually endorsed in the late Governor's communication, by adopting it as the basis of the financial measures recommended by him to the Legislature for adoption. By comparing the estimates submitted to the General Assembly in 1847, of the probable receipts and expenditures for the political years 1848, and 1849, with actual receipts and expenditures for the same period, the result will not fail to convince you how little reliance is to be placed upon all estimates of income and expenditure, made under the present tax act. What is true of the two last years, will be found to be also true of the two previous years. This comparison is not invited with the remotest view of reflecting upon the capacity or integrity of the Officers in charge of the Treasury at the periods referred to; but my object is higher—it is to show first, that the fault is not with the officer at the head of the Treasury, but with our whole system for collecting revenue; and that as long as it is maintained, results are, and will continue to be, exposed to great fluctuations; and secondly, to expose the unreliable data upon which I felt it to be my duty to reject the tax act of the last session, among other reasons, because of its apparent insufficiency to raise adequate income to meet all charges upon the Treasury. It will be seen that the sum of $ 67,351 52 was the total available balance in the Treasury at the close of the present financial year; from this sum are $25,172 21 of undrawn appropriations, $15,199 30 of the tax for the year 1850 collected, and $9,625 50 dividends on "Education Fund," to be deducted, leaving a surplus at the close of the fiscal year just ended, of $ 17,534 51. Of the undrawn appropriations, it is probable that $3,000 will revert to the Treasury—making the actual surplus about $20,534 50—subject to any future appropriations the Legislature may make. It is not believed that a higher rate of tax will be required if the present system is continued; nor do I feel at liberty to recommend any reduction. This must depend, in a great measure, upon the appropriations, ordinary and extraordinary, of the present session, and the sum that may finally be established, by law as an annual sinking fund—a measure that should claim your early attention. The public debt is now $1,828,472 22. Of this sum less than $23,000 are payable in January, 1858, and $10,000 in July, 1853. The balance of our bonds are payable from 1868 to 1874—making the entire public debt redeemable in twenty-five years. To provide a sinking fund for this object in equal annual installments would require less than $ 74,000. If the balance of the debt contracted for the extension of