112 The Financial History of Connecticut. 



was necessitated by the cause of justice. The abatement of one- 

 eighth of the tax was not necessary in a large number of the towns 

 which accepted it. Not only did this lessen the revenue which the 

 state should have received from these towns, but it was unjust to 

 those towns which had the most paupers to support.^ In the case 

 of the latter, the abatements were only a partial relief while with 

 the former more was granted than was needed. The state needed 

 a certain amount of revenue every year and the rate of the state 

 tax was regulated by this need. If the state was unjustly deprived 

 of revenue from some towns, the loss was made up by imposing a 

 higher rate than would otherwise be necessary. In this way the towns 

 which had justly received the abatement would really be helping 

 the other towns to lower their expenses. By an act passed in 1850, ^ 

 the legislature provided that the state tax should be paid direct!}- 

 by the towns to the state treasurer. This abohshed the system of 

 state collectors, and eliminated an unnecessary expense.^ There- 

 after the state tax was considered as an expense by the towns, was 

 provided for when the town taxes were assessed, and was collected 

 by the proper town official. From April 1, 1846, to March 31, 

 1850, before the new system was instituted, the total expense of 

 abatements and collection of taxes was thirty-eight thousand eight 

 hundred seventy-one dollars. 



C. Revenue. 

 1. Revised System of Taxation. 



The increase in the current expenditures finally compelled the 

 assembly to increase the taxes. The grand list was not growing rapidly 

 enough to supply the necessary funds by continuing to impose upon 

 the towns the former state tax of one cent on the dollar. In 1847 

 the rate was raised by the legislature to one and a half cents on the 

 dollar.^ This action increased the returns from the state tax by 

 twenty thousand dollars a year, but nevertheless the state was 

 forced to borrow from the school fund, annually, from the beginning 

 of this period, and on March 31, 1850, it owed more than fifty-eight 

 thousand dollars to this fund. Although on other occasions the 

 state had received temporary loans from the school fund and from 



^ Treasurer's Report, 1851, p. 6. 



2 Public Acts, 1850, chap. 64, sec. 6. 



3 Cf. pp. 57, 98. 



* Private Acts, 1847, p. 123. 



