MESSAGE. STATE OF GEORGIA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, ATLANTA, November 9, 1898. To the Senate and House ef Representatives: lt is by the constitution made the duty of the Governor to give to the General Assembly, from time to time, "information of the state of the :commonwealth," and in the discharge of this duty it is incumbent on me at the very a threshold of your official duties to advise you of serious deficiency in 'the public revenues. For seYeral years past a spirit of liberality in the appro- priation of money from the public treasury, not warranted by the stringency of the times and the ability of the people to pay taxes, has been apparent, and frequent large supplemental appropriations have been made at the second session of each legislature, for the payment of which no adequate provision has been made. We have, in our anxiety to provide for the necessities of the institutions and objects for which it is the duty of the State to provide, lost sight of the constantly growing inability of the people. to bear the ever-increasing burden of taxation. Our annual appropriations from the treasury and the annual rate of taxation have increased year after year, while all values have shrunken, and the prices of our annual crops and of labor, and of all the products of labor, have gone continually lower and lower, and the ability to pay of all those 2 who have to bear the burtheus of taxation has grown coll stantly less. Owing to the continual increase in the shrinkage in values, and the disposition or men to evade in hard times the demands of the tax-gatherer, and to conceal from him such property as can be concealed, the annual revenues of the State have, year after year, fallen short of the estimates. From these causes, and the additional fact that in some instances appropriations have been made without adequate provision for their payment, there will not be in the treasury, on the first of ,July, money enough to mee~ the demands on it ; and this, too, in the face of the fact that the rate of taxation and the aggregate amount of taxes collected from the people is the largest in th.e history of the State. It is to advise you of this grave situation that this communication is sent you, in order that you, in your wisdom, may provide by proper legislation to meet the emergency, and prevent a recurrence of the condition that i1ow confronts us. In order to be fully advised of the real condition of the treasury as it now is, and as it will be on the first of July, I, on the 7th instant, addressed to the State treasurer a communication calling for a statement of the actual available cash balance in the treasury on the first day of the present month, the probable receipts at the treasury from all sources between that date and the first day of July next, inclusive, and the probable disbursements on all accounts on and prior to the last named date, so as to show the condition of the treasury on the first day of July, 1899. This date has been selected be'cause at that time thtl cash bal 3 ance in the treasury is usually at its lowest. The statement asked for was promptly sent to this department by the treasurer, and is as follows: Civil E,tablishment ........................ $ 66,783 33 Contingent :Fund ................................ 8,432 01 Military Fund ................................. 30,558 62 Fertilizer Fund ................................. 5,501 32 Geological Fund............................... 4,026 86 Penitentiary Fund............................. 2,500 00 Prison Fund ................................... 75,000 00 School Fund ................................. .. 1,256,483 96 Solicitors-General ............................ 2,160 00 Overpayments refunded .................. 2,106 39 Insurance Fund .........,.................... 7,837 90 Library Fund ......................:............ 1,546 10 Public debt ..................................... 272,000 00 Temporary loan ... . ........ ... ......... . 200,000 00 Memorial Fund ............................. 14,524 24 Printing Fund................................. 15,000 00 Public Building Fund ....................... 16,810 48 Technological School........................ . 11,250 00 North Georgia Agricultural College..... 3,000 00 State Normal School ...................... 11,250 00 Georgia Normal and Ind. School ...... .. 11,450 00 State Sanitarium .............................. . 214,000 00 Trustees Sanitarium ........................ .. 1,820 00 Department of Agriculture ................ 5,000 00 Printing Fund R. R. Com ................. 493 11 Sch9ol for Deaf .... .. ... .... .. ... . ........... 12,500 00 Repairing Capitol ............................ 816 80 Academy for Blind .......................... 15,000 00 Trustees University............. . .......... 600 00 Contingent Fund R. R. Com ............. 400 00 Clerk Supreme Court costs ............... 1,000 00 Legislative pay-roll ...................... .. ~9,000 00 Penitentiary Fund. Special account... 1,500 00 4 Printing Snpreme Court Reports ......... School for Colored .......................... State University ............................. Pensions ....................................... Land Scrip Fund ........................... Cont. Exp. Supreme Court ............... , Probable additional appropriation ..... Due July 1st, Hl9!l: Salaries .......................................... Interest on public debt ................... . Public institutions ................... Sinking Fund Reserve ....................... 4,000 00 . 8,000 00 8,000 00 640;000 oo 6,314 14 900 00 100,000 00- 3,107,565 26 35,000 00 170,000 00 62,350 00 100,000 00- 367,350 00 $ 3,474,915 26 STATEMENT SHOWING PROBABLE CONDil'ION OF THE TREAl!IURY JULY 1, 1899. Cash on hand Nov. 1, 1898 .. . ...... ......... $ 275,030 07 General tax ............., ......................$ 2,113,109 00 Poll tax ........................................... 223,838 66 Artists' tax ......... .. . .. ........ .... ......... 809 00 Billiard tax ..................................... 4,636 00 Liquor tax...................................... ( Show tax ........................:.............. 85,763 67 5,983 64 Insolvent General tax ...................... 10,613 16 Insolvent Poll tax ............................. 1,354 65 Insurance fees ...........:................. . 11,sq6 40 I~surance Agents' tax .................... 6,810 00 Pistol tax ........................................ 4,301 90 Telephone tax. ........ ...... ...... .......... 3,157 07 Sewing Machine Agents .................... 885 00 Oil fees ........................................... 10,616 22 Office fees ......................................... . 2,053 45 Railroad tax . .... ... ... ......... ....... . ...... 259,889 48 Insurance tax ................................. .. 29.402 94 Interest from Banks ......................... 6,088 62 Cogts on fi. fas .. .. .. ................ ,.......... 31 50 Interest onfi. fas ........................... .. 226 44 Rental W. & A. R.R...................... .. 280,008 00 Lightning Rod tax .......................... 90 00 5 Fertilizer fees ................................... Tax on Games .............................. Auctioneers' tax................................. Tax on Specialists ..... . .................. .. Sales Supreme Court Reports ............. . Hire of Convicts ............................. . Tax on Peddlers ............................... Money Refunded ............................ Wild Land tax ............................... Telegraph tax .................................... Tax on Pawnbrokers ........................ Sale of Codes ... ...... .......................... Sale of Acts .. ........ .... ...... .... .. .. . . . .. Ta:s: on Futures Dealers ................... . Ta:ii; on Patent Vendors .................... . Tax on Se-wing Machine Compani"s... . Tax on Agencies .............................. Tax on Loan Agents ......................-... Tax on Brewing Companies .............. Tax on Cold Storcge ....................... Dividends from Stocks . ................... Tax on Express Companies ............... Tax on Sleeping; Car Companies ........ Lea1e Oyster Lands ........................ 3,933 28 225 00 li5i 50 82 40 3,905 50 25,000 00 1,414 40 60 00 6 38 1,997 06 1,305 do 1,800 00 54 00 4,950 00 9 00 1,200 00 360 00 72 00 900 00 720 00 1,498 00 2,897 37 895 00 15 00- 3,115,021 69 $3,390,051 76 Deficit .. .. ..........................................................$84,863 50 From it, it will be seen that there will, be a probable deficit of nearly eighty-five thousand dollars on the first day of July. In other words, the money now in the treas- ury and that to be paid into the treasury between now and the last named date will lack about eighty-five thousand dollars of being sufficient to meet the legitimate demands on the treasury for the. same period of time. In this esti- mate is not included four hundred thousand dollars which will be due the teachers of the public schools on the 20th 6 of July, 1899, for their second q \)arter's work, for the payment of which no provision has been made. In this connection it is perhaps my duty to add that there remains approved by the Pension Commissioner and unpaid for the want of funds, pension claims to the aggre- gate amount of about sixty thousand dollars. It must be borne in mind that these deficits are all for the present year. If the same appropriations are made for the next year, and the rate of taxation remains the same as for this year, the aggregate amount of deficit on July 1st, 1900, will be at least twice as great as it will be in July, 1899. Thus the condition that confronts us is this: we must either reduce appropriations dr largely iucrease the rate of taxation, when it is already greater than it has ever been in the history of the State, and when our people, especially our farmers, upon whom the burden of taxation largely falls, are, owing to the unprecedentedly low price of their products, less able to pay taxes than they have ever been in the past. This is a grave situation, and it behooves uis to meet it with due regard alike for the taxpayers of the State and the. persons and institutions for which the State is both legally and morally bound to provide. I submit these facts to the representatives of the people for their consideration and prompt action, feeling assured that they in their wisdom will solve the problem presented without any increase in the present rate of taxation, which under existing circumstances is already onerous and all that our people should for a~y purpose whatever be required to bear. A. D. CANDLER, Governor.