Show FALSE ECONOMY Is it false economy or is it something else that prompted state representative thos H burton to introduce two bills into the state legislature last week which it enacted into law will keep the taxpayers in greater ignorance of what becomes of the hard earned money they pay into the public treasury asks the mantl messenger he has introduced two bills one affecting the clerk of the school board and the other the county clerk in each case the bills provide that these two officers shall be largely freed from the responsibility of publishing annually in a newspaper a detailed statement of the finances receipts and disbursements to whom and for what of the school board and the county offices as is now required by law the law now reads section 1555 the county auditor shall prepare and publish during th month of january of each year in some newspaper having a general circulation cu lation in the county a detailed statement of the financial condition of the county and all receipts and expenditures tures for the previous year ending december 31 showing 7 each warrant issued to whom and on what account provided that if more than one warrant has been issued to one individual on the same account during the year the aggregate amounts shall be shown in the statement as one warrant and provided further that various items paid out to individuals that are charges on the county shau not be published but the same may be stated as a total and the itemized statement of the same shall be on file in the auditors office mr burton s bill would cause this same no 7 to read as follows 7 showing the aggregate eapen deture from each fund budgeted and an itemized statement of said expenditures to be kept on file in the auditors office it was a wise legislature that enacted the present law the messenger points out the law was passed in the interest of protecting public funds from the speculations peculations and fraud of unscrupulous officers to guard against waste in public expenditures and to give to the man who toots the bill the taxpayer an opportunity to study without embarrassment the disbursement of his funds the times independent cannot understand why any legislator should wish to make secret at least make difficult to determine how the school and county funds are administered we do not believe the average school board trustee or the average county commissioner be behind former judge burton in his at tempt to prevent the publication of these reports and we do not believe the members of the eighteenth legislature will give the burton measures very weighty consideration before consigning them to the waste basket |