Show and F FINANCE 1 p kt at the close of 0 the year and at the lose close or of one ot of the states two year fiscal periods Is a natural time for a review of tire the states finances and we have thought the subject abject of enough public interest inte iest test to warrant our delaying the publication of this letter until th the a full figures could be had they present an encouraging situation for the bonded indebtedness ot of utah is very small and its current expenses have been nearly taken care of by the current income on top of 0 this booi gooi beginnings have been ma made e in at least two important undertakings i 1 e systematic road construction and an the erection ot of a state capitol a gymnasium and a power plant have hare been erected at the agli cultural college at logan and a central building for the state university is in course of construction on november thirtieth the end of the fiscal period there was in the treasury a cash balance of 0 in round numbers every cent of which however and a I 1 little more beside Is appropriated for various purposes about belongs to special funds such for instance as the university maintenance fund and cannot be alienated for any other purpose of the remain Dg about stands as the unused residue of tile the capitol appropriation this leaves a bout out of which must be provided salaries of state officials for the last quarter of the year rear together with the be corresponding office mante maintenance nance semiannual semi annual interest ci ca lond issues and sinking fund payments on them these require requirements meWs total about 42 00 so far fram having any money in its treasury which it may spend for new purposes the state fals falls short of being able to lc supply it ith benent r sent needs need 3 without provision bahi being 9 made A similar situation held geld a at t the beginning of the present two year term i 1 a december r f ar 1910 the eash cash balance being over but a deficit of some size appearing in the general fund the annual ili income coinG of the state tor for the llie last four years stands as follows 1009 1909 1910 23 25 1911 1912 3 GGS about of each bears 1 ears income averaging roughly represents tho the operations of the land board cor consisting partly of principal and interest inte iest collected on outstanding loans anil and partly of payments on land contracts the sharp increases shown in the last three ears as compared with the first one of the four are particularly ticul arly etue due to the heavy inheritance taxes which have baa been collected during ing those years the income income from inheritance taxes while showing a large normal growth gro ath was in those years abnormally non naly large owing to the collection of a few heavy items such as the tax paid by the E if claril matt man estate these have in part been utilized by setting aside tor for the construction of the capitol cutting down by just so much tile the size of 0 any bond issue that may be bequir ed the cash disbursements durin during tills ibis period were somewhat less than the income resulting in a large cash balance on december tile tho possession of which has saved tile the state considerable sid erable charge char a by way of interest on overdraft the t tax ax rate has been brought down in 1912 to seven even and a halt half mills and the 1912 collections will total about 1 the assessed valuations OZ 0 utah property have risen from in 1909 to in 1912 an increase ot of while of course these figures represent but a fraction of the real values the percentage ot of increase should be fairly indicative of the real increase in values in utah during that period however increases in assessments seem to haie base lagged behind increases in real values rather than to have exceeded them the state now has outstanding live five series of 0 bonds to talling I as follows as of july 2 1896 31 32 2 s of september 1898 s of july 1st ast 1900 as both of july 1911 each of them runs tor for twenty years and under their terms a sinking fund for their retirement at maturity must be provided such sinking fund payments for the account of any issue commencing with nith its eleventh year mr all issues were sold at par the first three represent the refunding of old territorial issues and the sinking fund on them amounts now to another series of 1892 amounting to and hearing 5 interest erest retired in 1912 of the two last series the first is lor for road building and its proceeds are to be divided equally among the twenty six counties it is in addition to an air appropriation ot of annually for road construction an appropriation for or the maintenance of convict camps and varying but considerable sid erable sums of money voted to counties to assist in the building of 0 bridges and costly stretches of road ft it is t also in III addition to the road and bridge construction done by the counties themselves the second series was issued for the construction of a new central building at the state university still a sixth issue of a million dollars to provide tor for tho the erection of the state capitol has been authorized but will not be issued if current income can be made to supply tile the necessary funds it is interesting to us and to taxpayer to observe just how the state spends its money the following table illustrates a portion of the situation ja id 1912 expended for permanent maintenance funds for the three major state schools of total taxes levied high school fund 66 district school fund 40 miscellaneous educational cat ional expenses being the upkeep or of three minor state schools the farmers institutes experiment stations etc r total tor for education charities mental hospital good roads ei engineering gi it will be seen that nothing is in this list which Is not in the nature of actually constructive work and representative senta tive ot of an established state policy yet the sum Is almost equal to the tha total taxes the large capitol appropriation ria tion the state s police expenses including under that term all its costs for courts and penitentiary tile the interest and sinking fund payments on its bonded debt the upkeep of the national guard together with all the operating expenses of the machinery of state government were paid incurring only a moderate deficit by the current revenue ot of tile the state exclusive of direct taxes that is to say by the garrie game licenses inheritance taxes and office fees in short the state government has not only supported itself but has paid a dividend to its citizens on its operation every dollar of tax and more going into constructive work of some kind referring to the above tabulation the item good roads came In into the budget of 1911 1912 with a fixed annual appropriation for the first time in the states history a most important step forward though the amounts devoted to this purpose should and will grow systematic road construction by com coin detent engineers the counties working hand in hand with the state has really been inaugurated during these two years and we believe it should be regarded as the preeminently great thing done in that time in addition to the of taxes devoted to education the various state educational institutions vere were many years ago made the principal owners under grants rants from the government ern ment 11 0 of f about seven ab nb avillion acres of land five and a halt half million of which were set aside for the upkeep ot of the district schools A portion ot of this land has been and is now being beina solo sola roughly 38 of it so tar far and the proceeds reinvested there is consequently in the hands of the state land board a steadily rising total at the present moment about five and a halt half millions of interesting bearing paper the income from which can n never ever b be 0 diverted to any other purpose than the maintenance ot of tile the state institutions about two and a quarter millions of 0 tills this consist of deferred payments on land contracts drawing interest at 5 about three and a quarter millions are invested in mortgages bonds etc the activity of the land board is indicated by the fact that during the last two years it has sold too acres involving a purchase price of to give a still better idea of the th stress laid by the state and local authorities thorit ties fes upon educational work it may be said that during the tv two 0 year period ending june 30 1912 almost seventy dollars for every child AM ot of school age were spent in it the upkeep of the elementary and high schools ot of the state stale the one item ot of aftem alterations eions and new construction on school buildings has alone taken ot of this sum the value of ial lands and buildings occupied by the tha five state education institutions amounts to est adding as the value of the city and county property the total of utah investment in educational plants becomes and it spent nearly in 1912 to maintain operate and extend them such generous provision lias has resulted in centralized and graded schools and rural high schools though the state is sparsely populated it is to the everlasting credit of tile the pioneers of 0 utah that in it almost every town the largest and best buildings are arc the school house and the church LOCAL preliminary figures issued by the U S geological survey indicate that utah produced in 1912 about in gold silver copper lead and zinc placing it third among the western states and 19 ahead ot of its own onn last years record the greatest gains being in copper silver and lead colorados total is exceeded 20 by although only two years ago colorados output was the greater dividends paid in 1912 by utah mining milling companies were 21 ot of the gross output coal production is estimated to have exceeded that of last year by fifteen to twenty per cent in spite ot of some labor shortage occasioned by the balkan war coke also showed a large increase but its output was hampered somewhat by the lack of coke cars however the electrification and double tracking of the denver and rio grande coupled with the projected building of a new coal road from salt lake city should put an end to transportation por tation difficulties in the coal district tor for a long time to come As for agriculture and com commerce merce in this territory the achievements of all past years have been surpassed in in 1912 the outlook is excellent and 1913 should be a record year ear for the intermountain country in every department of its activities its greatest need is more moie population our numbers are growing swiftly but there are still nast ast areas of land we can easily do without the eastern land speculator but we need and welcome actual settlers there is an all opportunity here for them the NATIONAL COPPER HANK BANK of salt lake city utah |