General Fund. The amount on hand September 30, 1880, was credited to the several funds, as follows: The fiscal transactions and condition of the State, apart from its duties and responsibilities as trustee and custodian of the various educational and other funds before named, are exhibited in one account. All the revenues of the State, whether derived from taxes, licenses paid by railroad companies and other corporations and peddlers, or from fees and sales of laws and reports, are charged in the first instance to the GENERAL FUND. The receipts into this fund during the fiscal year were as follows: Direct State tax.. Railroad companies, license taxes Insurance companies, license taxes Counties, for the support of inmates of the several charitable institutions... Miscellaneous sources. Balar.ce from previous year Total..... . $455,881 89 418, 148 76 41,345 15 101,131 31 32,899 62 $1,049,406 73 273,281 49 $1,322,688 22 Trust Funds. The disbursements from this fund, for the same period, including, as will be seen, not only the payments for current expenses proper, but the interest on the State's "war debt," its contribu tions to the University, to the School fund income, for free high schools, and for the support of industrial schools, the hospitals for the insane, and the institutions for the education of the blind and the deaf and dumb, have been as follows: Salaries and other permanent appropriations.... $135,789 51 91,517 75 224,948 20 157,560 00 7,088 36 25,000 00 43,897 18 419,014 52 75,000 00 $1,179,815 52 142,872 70 Compared with the expenditures of the preceding fiscal year, there is an increase of $124,703.01; but of this sum $75,000 were paid to Milwaukee county on account of the construction of its insane asylum; and an excess of $12,785.68 was paid on account of appropriations to hospitals, benevolent and educational insti tutions; so that only $6,917.33 remains to be charged to current State expenses proper, and is more than accounted for in the increase of legislative expenses. The condition of the several educational TRUST FUNDS, at the close of the fiscal year, was as follows: Contingent Fund. The increase during the year in the amount at interest is $50,662.79, and in the amount on hand, $1,165.41—a gain of $54,828.20. Some complaints have been made that the sums reported on hand, from time to time, to the credit of these funds, are unnecessarily large; but it should be remembered that the officers charged with the care of these funds must comply not only with the written law regulating their management, but also with the predomi nating public sentiment. This sentiment, as exemplified in many acts of successive legislatures, unmistakably favors the policy of loaning these funds to school districts, towns, villages, cities and counties; but, except in the cases of school districts, such loans cannot be made without special laws authorizing them. If this system of loans is to be continued, it seems to me altogether expedient that a general law should be enacted, authorizing the Commissioners of Public Lands, subject of course to such conditions and restrictions as may be necessary, to make these loans. Three useful purposes would be thus subserved. The time of the legislature would not be taken up with the consideration of innumerable special acts authorizing loans; a much needed uniformity in the manner of making the loans and collecting the payments of principal and interest would obtain, and loans could then be made, from time to time, when needed, and the necessity for retaining large balances in the treasury would disappear. The balance to the credit of the Governor's CONTINGENT FUND, January 1, 1880, was $989.81. The expenditures chargeable to this fund, during the calendar year, have been $1,066.27., but in this sum is included $465.00, advanced to the committee investigating the affairs and management of the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane, to enable them to meet some of the expenses of、 that investigation. In view of the condition of this fund at the present time, and the possible demands upon it for the present year, I recommend that the sum of $2,000 be appropriated thereto at this session. Public Indebtedness. PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS. The aggregate indebtedness of the State is the same as at the close of the last fiscal year, namely: $2,252,057.00, and will doubtless so remain for years to come. This indebtedness represents in part the contributions Wisconsin made, during the war, for the preservation of the Nation, and the annual payment of interest thereon will be an annual reminder of that struggle and the causes which led to it,-themes to which neither we, nor those who come after us, can too frequently recur. The forms of this indebtedness have been somewhat changed, by taking up nine of the eleven bonds outstanding a year ago, and substituting therefor, certificates of indebtedness to the Agricultural College fund. The indebtedness of the several counties, cities, towns, villages and school districts in the State, is reported to the Secretary of State as follows: The aggregate public indebtedness of the people of Wisconsin is therefore somewhat less than twelve millions of dollars. ASSESSMENTS. The values of all property in the State subject to taxation, as returned by the assessors for the past two years, are as follows: The State Board of Assessment fixed the gross value of the taxable property in the state at $445,582,720.00, but even this sum Taxes. is, in my judgment, much below its actual value. It is, of course, The value of private property which pays no revenue to the State, either by way of direct tax, or otherwise, is returned by the assessors at $6,353,014.00, as follows: Religious associations.... Scientific and literary associations. Benevolent associations... Agricultural societies. $5,696,090 00 378,545 00 214, 779 00 63,600 00 TAXES. The total tax levied in the state for the year 1879, for all purposes, amounted to $7,577,767.27, a decrease of $392,091.73 from the amount levied the previous year, and was at the rate of $1.72 625-1000 on each one hundred dollars of the assessment for that year. The purposes for which these taxes were levied, and their respective amounts and rates, are as follows: These figures represent only the direct taxes levied upon property. The total taxes paid by the people, directly and indirectly, into the state treasury, were for the last fiscal year, nearly $600,000 in excess of the amount here stated. Nothing like this proportion obtains in county, town and other taxes, but the sums collected by way of licenses and fees are by no means inconsiderable. The State tax now being collected amounts to $662,058.63, a large increase over the tax of the preceding year, rendered neces |