MESSAGE

OF

Gov. WM. B. BATE,

TO THE

FORTY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OF TENNESSEE,

MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1885.

NASHVILLE:

ALBERT B. TAVEL, PRINTER TO THE STATE

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

You meet under auspicious circumstances as representatives of a prosperous and contented people, and have weighty duties to perform in the enactment of laws to conserve the general good. It is my duty, as it is a pleasure, in obedience to the Constitution of the State, to make such recommendations to the General Assembly, as may be deemed expedient.

FINANCES.

The reports of the Comptroller and Treasurer will be found to contain able and exhaustive presentations of the financial condition of the State, set forth in comprehensive detail, and worthy of your close investigation. These reports show the amount of receipts, from all sources, for two years ending December 19, 1884, inclusive, to be $2,346,353.94, which includes a balance of $246,790.76 turned over to Atha Thomas, Treasurer, by the M. T. Polk Investigating Commit. tee. This total also includes the total net amount of revenue collected and paid into the Treasury by the State's attorneys on back tax collections, amounting to $157,401.64. This back-tax account is a source of revenue upon which we cannot rely so much in future, inasmuch as a large portion of such taxes collectable have already been collected and turned in.

The disbursements for the two years ending December 19, 1884, amount to $1,701,139.11, leaving a balance in the Treasury at that date of $645,214.83. This balance ($645,214.83) includes $139,473.80 of new issue of Bank of Tennessee certificates, and old issue Bank of Tennessee money, which leaves $505,741.83 in actual available funds in the Treasury, less $21,141.41 in controversy in the Mechanics' (or Mechanics' National) {Bank of Knoxville.

Included in this disbursement is the sum of $250,313.92 interest on State debt paid from December 20, 1882, to December 19, 1884, inclusive. From the ratio at which the bonds are now being funded, we may reasonably expect a much larger increase upon the amount of interest that has to be paid on the bonded indebtedness.

The Comptroller's books show in their warrant account, that the warrants outstanding December 19, 1882, amounted to $114,830.06; amount of warrants issued from December 19, 1882, to December 19, 1884, inclusive, $1,766,207.15. The total amount of warrants paid (disbursements) from December 19, 1882, to December 19, 1884, inclusive, was $1,765,072.38, which leaves a balance of warrants outstanding (not yet presented), at the latter date, of $115,964.83.

APPROPRIATIONS.

The tabular statement presented by the Comptroller, showing the amount of appropriations for two years to March 19, 1885, contains the following interesting facts: Amount remaining from appropriations of the previous term and undrawn December 20, 1882, was $176,752.15; amount appropriated by General Assembly 1883-84, for the two years, was $1,684,899.45, equivalent to the sum of $842,449 83, to meet the expenses of the State each year.

The appropriations under special acts, not included in the general appropriation bill, drawn up to December 19, 1884, amount to $337,872.33, which includes the extraordinary appropriations for interest on State debt ($250,313.92); hospital for insane, East Tennessee ($69,931.29); deficit of hospital for insane, Middle Tennessee ($25,000), made to cover current expenses of said institution to December 19, 1882, and which the Legislature of 1881-2 failed to make provisions for, hence the last Legislature was necessitated to provide for it; arrest of ex-Treasurer M. T. Polk ($10,000), together with the salaries of the judges of Referee Courts, and of the Railroad Commissioners, which have not heretofore been required to be paid, all of which, constituting an unusual expense, will be seen in detail in the Comptroller's report. This makes the total appropriations (for the two years) drawn up to December 19, 1884, amount $1,766,207.15, and leaving undrawn December 19, 1884, the sum of $151,834.19. While this sum remains undrawn other matters of appropriation have fallen short of the amount named in the general appropriation bill to effect the object intended, $26,886.60 for criminal prosecutions, and about $17,000 for other purposes therein named, as is fully shown in the Comptroller's report, and should be provided for.