Sources of Revenue. 67 



C. Sources of Revenue. 



1. State Tax. 



As the grand list was the basis of the state tax upon the towns, 

 this large reduction of its amount meant that the state must either 



raise the tax rate or cut down the expenditures. The repub- 

 n^t" ^^^^" P^rt}^ then in power, decided upon the latter alternative 



and the tax rate was kept at one cent on the dollar throughout 

 the entire period. The total amount of the state tax laid for this 

 period, exclusive of the years 1819 and 1820 (in which years the 

 taxes were laid on the lists made, under the old system, in the years 

 1817 and 1818) was $1,037,938, an average of only thirty-nine thou- 

 sand nine hundred twenty dollars a year. A fair comparison of the 

 policy that prevailed in the first period, when the Federalists were 

 in power, with the policy adopted by the Repubhcans, may be made 

 by taking fifteen years of each period. This choice of fifteen years 

 will make a further comparison easy when the entire fifteen years 

 of the third period come under consideration. ^ The fifteen years 

 chosen for the first period are the years from May 1, 1799, to April 9, 

 1818, exclusive of the four years— May 1, 1812 to April 30, 1816— 

 when extraordinary taxation was caused by the war with Great 

 Britain. Eliminating those years, the average annual rate for fif- 

 teen years was forty-eight thousand seven hundred eighteen dollars. 

 The fifteen years for the second period will begin April 1, 1820 (when 

 the system inaugurated by the Republicans became operative) and 

 will end March 31, 1835. The average rate for these years was thirty- 

 seven thousand nine hundred sixty-five dollars, a reduction of ten 

 thousand seven hundred fifty-three dollars per year. The state 

 tax on the towns, however, still remained the chief source of income 

 upon which the state depended for the means with which to meet 

 the ordinary expenses of the state government and the income from 

 the permanent fund continued to be the next highest in amount. 



2. Permanent Fund. 



The composition of this fund on April 10, 1818, when the 



first period was nearing its close, has been shown else- 



p . . where. 2 For convenient reference, it is repeated 



of Fund, 1818 here. 



1 Cf. p. 113. 



2 Cf. p. 34. 



