State Expenditures. 85 



and empowered him to deduct from sums actually expended by the 

 towns whenever he thought unnecessary expense had been incurred. ^ 

 Three more provisions, enacted in 1820, were the effective measures 

 in reducing this item of expense. First, it was enacted that any per- 

 son born in this state or in a neighboring state could not become a 

 state pauper.^ This tended to restrict the unloading of paupers 

 from neighboring states into Connecticut and to do away with much 

 of the pushing along of paupers from one town to another, thus 

 preventing them from gaining a settlement and causing them to 

 become state paupers. Secondly, a hmitation was set on the amounts 

 for which a town could be reimbursed. Hitherto, no limit had been 

 set, and under a loose system of checking such expenditures, the 

 towns could run up their claims considerably and have them allowed. 

 Now not more than one dollar a week was to be allowed for any 

 person over fourteen years of age, and for those under that age fifty 

 cents was the limit.^ Finally, the comptroller was authorized to 

 contract for the support of state paupers for any length of time not 

 exceeding five years. He was to obtain the best terms possible but 

 could not make a contract on terms higher than have already been 

 specified. The comptroller was also given the power to remove the 

 state paupers from any town and to place them with the contracting 

 party.* 



The results of these hmitations and the pohcy of contracting for 

 the support of the state paupers were striking. From the beginning 



of the period, the expense incurred by the state for 

 LimiUtions paupers decreased each year until for the year ending 



March 31, 1826, the sum was only twenty-six hundred 

 dollars. The contracting for a number of years now becomes evident ; 

 for during the next two years this same sum was spent and for the 

 next five years the state spent two thousand dollars annually for 

 this purpose. This amount was cut to eighteen hundred dollars 

 for the year ending March 31, 1834, and this was the sum annually 

 spent for the three following years. The state continued to get pro- 

 gressively lower terms and from the year beginning April 1, 1837, 

 paid but seventeen hundred dollars a year for the support of its 

 paupers for the next five years. For the year ending March 31, 

 1843, the state spent fifteen hundred dollars, and this was the amount 

 at which this expense stood at the close of this period. 



1 Public Statute Laws, Oct. 1818, chap. 3, p. 314. 



2 Public Statute Laws, 1820, chap. 34, sec. 2. 



3 Pubhc Statute Laws, 1820, chap. 34, sec. 1. 

 * Ibidem, sec. 3. 



