LOUISIANA. 



499 



Treasurer's office; $15,000 in the Attorney- 

 Generars office; $6,000 in the State Depart- 

 ment; in the Land Office, $2,000; in the Judi- 

 cial Department, $64,000. The expenses of the 

 Legislature for 1878 were $200,000 less than 

 for any year since reconstruction ; the annual 

 expenses in future will be reduced $85,000. 

 A saving is effected in the assessment and col- 

 lection of taxes of $60,000 in the country, and 

 $35,000 in the city; in the department of 

 education there is a saving of $29,100 ; in the 

 system of registration and election of $44,000 ; 

 and an annual saving of $200,000 in the ex- 

 pense of public printing. By the legislation 

 for the country parishes a retrenchment in 

 parish administration of $517,000 is assured, 

 and by legislation for the city a saving, accord- 

 ing to calculation, of $1,531,412." 



The finances of the State were in an em- 

 barrassed condition during a part of the year. 

 The income of the Treasury was not sufficient 

 to meet the demands upon it. The epidemic 

 caused the collections to be slow by the de- 

 rangement of business which ensued. But 

 a more important cause was the action of the 

 Legislature in reducing the general fund tax 

 from four to two and a half mills, without mak- 

 ing a corresponding reduction in the appropri- 

 ations. A reduction was also made in licenses 

 for the future. It was expected that the 

 revenue to be derived from the act commonly 

 known as the "Moffett register law" would 

 supply all deficiencies. This act has never 

 been put into execution, from the fact of an 

 injunction proceeding being taken against the 

 Auditor, which, although decided in favor of 

 the State in the lower court, is yet finally un- 

 determined. By this failure of the expected 

 source of revenue, the appropriations predi- 

 cated upon its success have been necessarily 

 without prompt means of payment. This condi- 

 tion of things has been aggravated by the mis- 

 apprehension which seems to have existed on 

 the subject of the " State-House fund." At the 

 time of the passage of the revenue bill of 1878 

 the Supreme Court of the State had decided 

 the act providing for the setting aside of one 

 half mill from the general fund to the State- 

 House fund to be unconstitutional ; but the 

 decree was pending on a rehearing, and was 

 subsequently reconsidered and the validity of 

 the act sustained. The general fund was thus 

 not only deprived of the revenue consequent 

 on the expected execution of the "Moffett 

 register law," but also of one half a mill not 

 apparently contemplated at the time of the 

 enactment of the revenue and appropriation 

 bills of 1878. 



The bonded debt of the State now amounts, 

 in consolidated bonds, to $11,724,800; esti- 

 mated amount yet to be founded, $488,100; 

 general fund warrants, $188,720.92. The col- 

 lection of revenue from the five and a half 

 mills tax not having been adequate to the pay- 

 ment of the interest coupons due on the 1st 

 of January, 1879, they have remained unpaid. 



By the provisions of the funding law, State 

 consols were authorized to be issued to the 

 extent of $15,000,000, or so much thereof as 

 might be necessary, payable forty years from 

 the 1st day of January, 1874, to bear interest 

 at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum, payable 

 semi-annually in the cities of New York and 

 New Orleans, on the first days of July and 

 January in each year, interest coupons being 

 annexed to the bonds. The provision made 

 for the payment of the principal and interest of 

 these bonds, thus authorized to be issued, was 

 a tax of five and a half mills, to be annually 

 levied on the assessed value of the property, 

 real and personal, in the State. The language 

 of the statute is as follows : 



That a tax of five and a half mills on the dollar of 

 the assessed value of all real and personal property 

 in the State is hereby annually levied, and shall be 

 collected, for the purpose of paying the interest and 

 principal of the consolidated bonds herein authorized, 

 and the revenue derived therefrom is hereby set 

 apart and appropriated to that purpose, and no other ; 

 and that it shall be deemed a felony for the Fiscal 

 Agent or any officer of the State or Board of Liqui- 

 dators to divert the same from its legitimate channel, 

 as provided, and upon conviction the said party 

 shall be liable to imprisonment for not more than 

 ten years nor less than two, at the discretion of the 

 Court. If there shall, during any yea^, be a surplus 

 arising from said tax after paying all interest falling 

 due in that year, such surplus shall be used for the 

 purchase and retirement of bonds authorized by this 

 act, said purchases to be made by the said Board of 

 Liquidation from the lowest offers, after due notice ; 



Erovided, that the total tax for interest and all other 

 tate purposes, except the support of public schools, 

 shall never hereafter exceed 12i mills on the dollar. 

 The interest tax aforesaid shall be a continuing 

 dnnual tax until the said consolidated bonds shall be 

 paid or redeemed, principal and interest ; and the 

 said appropriation shall be a continuing annual ap- 

 propriation during the same period, and this levy 

 and appropriation shall authorize and make it the 

 duty of the Auditor and Treasurer and the said 

 board, respectively, to collect said tax annually, 

 and pay said interest, and redeem the said bonds, 

 until the same shall be fully discharged. 



The statute was accompanied with constitu- 

 tional amendments, limiting the debt to $15,- 

 000,000, making its provisions a part of the 

 Constitution, and providing " that the revenue 

 of each year derived from taxation upon real, 

 personal, and mixed property, or from licenses, 

 shall be devoted solely so the expenses of the 

 said year for which it shall be raised, except- 

 ing any surplus remaining, which shall be 

 directed to the sinking of the public debt." 



After the passage of this law and the adop- 

 tion of the amendments connected with it, the 

 rate of taxation was as follows : Interest and 

 principal of public debt, five and a half mills ; 

 levees, three mills; general fund, four mills; 

 schools, two mills. The fiscal arrangement 

 had hardly been effected when it became ob- 

 vious that the provision of five and a half 

 mills was inadequate, upon the then basis of 

 assessment and collections thereunder, to pro- 

 vide promptly for the payment of the interest 

 on the consolidated debt. An amount of 

 $305,474 is thus due to the Fiscal Agent for 



