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Show AUDITORS DECLARE PRESENT ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS BAD National Association Adopts Resolution Condemning Condemn-ing Prevalent Methods, Would Utilize Exact Budget Science TODAY S PROGRAMME The Utah Inheritance Tax Law by A R Barnes attorney general. Work of the Board of Public Affairs by John S Donald sec retary of state of Wisconsin Adoption of constitution and by laws Election of officers The meeting will be held in the senate chamber at the state capi toL THE National Assoc ation of State Aud tors and Comptrollers in dividually and collect vely yes terday afternoon excoriated fore bly and roughjy prevalent methods of making Btate appro priat ons as one of the most pernicious wasteful and altogether ant quated phases of state governmen in ex s tence It adopted unanimously a reso lution condemning prosent methods and going upon record as favor ng the re duction of appropr ations to an exact budget science Th s was the f rst concrete step taken by the ne vly organized associa t on The resolut on prov des that the associat on shall memorialize all the state legislatures to revise the r appro priation laws and make prov s on for the budget system E M rull ngton budget comm ss on er of Oh o Btarted the d scuss on of ap propr at ons w th a paper on the locked b dget system of Oh o, one of the few states in the un on that has dropped the old method of spend ng its revenue He revie ved in able manner the lm provement in admin strat on and the saving in finance that had resulted from the adoption of the budget Bystem in his state Resolution Introduced At the conclus on of his address and the discuss on wh ch followed it J C Callahan auditor of Arizona ntro-duced ntro-duced the resolution It was adopted without question It follows Whereas the practice of mak ng open annual, continuous non spe-c spe-c f c and unlim ted appippnat ons is inconsistent with economy and contrary to the theory and prac tice of accounting and leads to prodigality extravagance and waste of the taxpayers' money and is therefore pernicious, be it Resolved by the first annual convention of state auditors and comptrollers that the pract ce be and is hereby emphat cally and un reservedly condemned and that it be the sense of this convent on that an appropriation in the proper sense of the term s a specific or maximum sum of money and no more set asido for a specific pur pose and no other, and that a copy of this resolution be transm tted to the var ous Btate legislatures in proper season urgently advising the ellm nation of the old methods The association will conclude its con vent on today following a final busi ness session to be held in the senate chamber of the Btate capitol beg nmng at 9 o clock th s morn ng Prior to the meeting the vis tors will be shown through the cap tol Elect on of officers selection of the next convent on place and adopt on of a constitut on and by laws will be the principal features of the meeting today To Re elect Officers It was the consensus of opinion yes terday that the present off cers chosen temporarily at the time of the organi zat on in Denver last year w U be re elected for the ensuing year, though the committee appointed to draft the by laws has concluded to recommend that the executive comm ttee now con sisting of sixteen members be re duced to five including the president vice pres dent and secretary 8 m lar ly the pos t on of second v ce pres dent' probably w 11 be eliminated The off cers who probably will be re elected are A W Powell of Ponnsvl van a pres dent John S Chambers Cal forn a vice pres dent and Lincoln G Kelly Utah secretary At the morn ng sess on yesterday the aud tors were not backward in con demning as useless most of the state eff c ency and economy comm ssious as adopted n many eastern Btates These comm ss ons more often than other wise, destroy rather than promote econ omy and eff ciency and are sually made up of men without knowledge of publ c service and unqual fied for pass ng on quest ons of administrat on it was held Tohn K Seagrave state and tor of II llnols led the d Bcussion with a paper on Fconomy and Eff ciency and Why tho Average I conomy and Eff ciency Comm sslon Falls Integrity Essential Tl o chief elen ent of good public ser v ce is ntegrity he sa u and th s can not be ass red by r les and regulations, formulated by these commissions Ab stract svstems bv following which p b-lic b-lic off cials are bound to exorc so care an 1 promote eff c ency arc super or to o nth ss ons arto nteu to bring nbo t tl ose q alities n the publ c service he declared Thoso off cials confront ng the problem directly and doal ng w th it constantly are b tter able to work o t a sol tion than a comn iss on of unqunli f ed men with no part cular know! dgo of the work he said Mr Sengravo crit cised the trend of theso economy comm sslons to record u end the el minatlon and consol lat on of certain departments of state go crn nent Centralizing aim n strat on prob len s In tho 1 an is of fewer boards does ot nocossar ly make for eff ciency he sa d but. on tl e other 1 and the boarl j or department d roctly concerned witl a problem of adm nistratioh s in a bet er posit o to solvo it It is not so m ch nefflciency in ex pen 1 tures 1 t lack of intell gent an! systemat c appro) r ations that co ses most of tho trouble nnd waste of pub 1 revenue 1 o op nod Civil Service Criticised Civil service comm Bsions also came in for cr t clsm Often it wan po nt 1 out civil service resulto 1 in the per petuation of a part cular administrate nsnv of the lesser off ces of state Before con oolna jeaterdaj nornlng the auditors wer tie guests of Lincoln G Kelly stato a ditor. on a sight seeing trip about Ihe city They were taken in autos up City Creek canyon over the (Wlasatch boulevard to Ford Douglas and back to Liberty park H E Mulnix auditor of state for Colorado read a paper on the Trend and Comparat ve Cost of Government at the afternoon meeting He declared that there was no ideal standard to which the activity of government can be made to conform. Rather state gov ernment must exercise broad or narrow f unct ons increase its act v t es or less en them accord ng to the needs of the commonwealth it serves The quest on of eff c ency and econ omy n the expenditure of publ c funds he said lies not so much in the curtail ment of expense and the reduction of taxat on as it does m the proper ex pend ture of such revenue as is avail able True economy in state govern ment cons sts of getting full value for every dollar spent he declared but the growing demands of an ever increas ng civil zat on make it imposs ble to reduce taxes It is the net result that should he held in mind in judg ng of effic ency and economy rather than the surplus or overdraft in the state treasury, he sa d For instance the millions spent on good roads have ncreased the state expen d tures enormously in the past decade but no one could deny the value of the mprovements Ten years ago the tra 1 across the continental divide save where the railroads ran was followed by onlv the hard est of travelers 'Now t is a broad highway along wh ch thou sands of persons travel in autos across the cont nent He cont nued Unless we can deny the value of such undertak ngs for the promo t on of the general welfare we must accept with good grace the ever mount ng cost of government Principal of Government The fundamental purpose of state government is to safeguard the life and interests of the state in all its developments and the wonder s that one small state can meet its growing responsibilit es and ob 1 gations as well as it does As to whether a Btate government is extravagant or economical in its expenditures depends on three points First is the service for wh ch the outlay is made a reason able cost? Second does the ex penditure properly belong to the state government! and third do exist ng conditions justify the ex penditure? If those conditions are properly observed then it matters I ttle if the expenditures run into m llions and nse higher each year The commonwealth s then getting value for every dollar and its civ II zat on is progressing normally Everything worth hav ng costs and this s as true of the state as the individual Mr Mulnix concluded with a plea of greateT thrift in the conservation of public resources. He said As a nation and as individual states during the past three or four decades we have been the reverse of thrifty we have solaced our selves and selpt and dreamed that our heritage was hm tless and boundless We have gone on the theory that our patrimony was ex haustless Today as a nation and as Btates we are awakening from that com fortable slumber from that pleas ant but dangerous dream and are beginning to real ze that if we in turn are to bequeath the goodly heritage to those who come after ns" we must conserve that which we have and as never before our forests, our streams our agricx 1 tural and our graz ng lands must be safeguarded and protected. Ohio Man Speaks Mr Full ngton of Ohio held the at tent on of the convention for more than an hour with his able discuss on of the budget system as sppl ed to state gov ernment and his del neat on of that s stem as it works out in Oh o Br ef ly the budget system controlling state appropr at ons cons sts of an exact de terrainat on of the deta led needs of each department of state and the ap propnat on of a f xed sum that cannot be exceeded to meet that detailed need. Thus every appropr at on is made a spec fie sum for a specific purpose The budget system m use in Salt Lake City since the comm ss on form of government was adopted is eent al ly the same as that wh ch Mr Fulling ton outl ncd and v hich the assoc ation indorsed in ts resol t on memorial z ng Btate leg slatures It differs in deta Is how ever being applied merelv to rou n c pal go ernment Mr Full ngton ren arked that with few except ons the b siness of cities, counties states and federal government in America s be ng carried on through the agency of machinery which is ar chaic and antlq ated Especially s this tr e in matters of nance he sa d The budget system of expenditures puts the state a fiscal affa rse on a bus ness basis he said Every effort is made to put matters of f nance in the open and to render them perfectly un derBtandable An atte npt is n ade to get awav from the olsess on that the magn tudo of state expend tures n t be 1 dden from those who pay the b Us ne declared that vitl out onest on the systen makes for economy because ev cry tem n ust stand on its own legs It is impos ble he sail to p t thro gh a log roller bont on waiting p b lie funds vhen evory item of expendi ture Is brought out in broad daylight and must nn the gauntlet of seven separate governing bol cs The a d tors were the guests of Lin coin G Kelly at an inforn al d nncr at the Hotel ttah last evening Matters of bool keep ng vere taboo for tho oc cas on and nothing but impromptu toasts prov a led Allen T Foote of Ohio the founder of the National Tax association arrived fron San Francisco yesterlay afternoon and was the pi est of the a d tors at tl e dinner lie spoke inforn ally on tl e s bjoct of tax reforms as they af feet the b siness of being a state au dltor |