REPORT. CHAPTER I. Having introduced the subject of this report, as concisely as the circumstances connected with the creation and organization of a new department seemed to admit, it is proper that a synopsis of its transactions and accomplished results should be furnished with a comparison of the more important features of the working of the old and new systems, and also the experience and conclusions of this Department in its execution of the new law. Some suggestions and recommendations, in regard to amendments of the law, are also respectfully submitted for consideration. The Supply Bill of 1896 appropriated for the expenses of organization, equipment and maintenance of this Department and its various branch offices, including furniture and fixtures, rents, salaries, etc., for the portion of the fiscal year beginning with its origin, April 1, 1896, and ending September 30, 1896.... $138,825 00 Of this amount there has been expended during said six months 84,315 72 Leaving on hand to meet unliquidated bills, or to be added to the regular appropriation for the year ending September 30, 1897... $54,509 28 The unliquidated bills referred to are mostly those incurred in matters of litigation yet unfinished. A part only of the furniture and fixtures, for which appropriation was made, has been purchased, since this Department has temporarily occupied the rooms and used the furniture and fixtures of another department. The delay in securing Special Agents, during the first five months, while possibly causing some loss of revenue, has enabled the Department to keep within the supply or emergency appropriation, and, notwithstanding some extraordinary and unexpected expenses, will reinforce the regular appropriation for 1896-97, which otherwise would have been deficient. Below is given a summary of tax-certificates issued and receipts therefrom, during the first six months of the liquor tax year, beginning May 1st and ending October 31, 1896: Received for certificates, transfers and fines...... $11,038,322 36 Amount of localities' share... State's share, which includes $13,900.25 collected from common carriers under section 11, subdivision 4, of which localities get no part.... 10,640,408 20 7,084,338 64 3,556,069 56 The rebates for unexpired terms of certificates have been mostly to summer hotels, steamboats and cars, excursions and places changed from saloons into so-called social clubs to avail themselves of the benefits of recent judicial decisions. COMPARATIVE STATEMENT. Believing that it will be of interest, the Department has compiled statistics to show the working and financial results of the old excise law in comparison with the present system, as completely as it could be done in the limited time and with the meager data available. Information for this comparison is principally gathered from the reports of the 963 boards of excise, which were made April 15th and April 30, 1896. As appears by these reports, boards of excise throughout the State exercised a discretion in the matter of collecting license fees that was not contemplated by the law under which they were acting. For licenses for less than a year, it was the practice of many town boards to charge the full yearly rate, and of others to charge varying and irregular amounts. In some of the cities the records show that great differences existed in the methods of assessing and collecting license fees from dealers apparently circumstanced just alike; in many cases it being absolutely impossible to determine the rule or theory on which it was done. No little difficulty was experienced in compiling data from the reports furnished by the old boards, owing to the fact that each local board kept its records in its own peculiar way. COMPARISON. Licenses issued for 12 months prior to April 30, 1896, and reported as then in force..... 33,437 Liquor tax certificates issued from May 1, 1896, to October 31, 1896, in force November 1, 1896..... Reduction in licensed places... 26,593 6,844 Total receipts under liquor tax law, from May 1 to $2,919,593 81 Ratio of expense of collection, including Department's expenses for rents, equipment and county treasurers' fees, 1 31-100 per cent. It is estimated that collections during the balance of the liquor tax year (to May 1, 1897), will be sufficient to pay refunds due and to become due, and that the expenses of the Department for the remaining six months will be about $100,000, which will make the ratio of total expense (including county treasurers' fees), for 13 months, ending April 30, 1897, about two and one-fourth per cent. It is impossible to separate the expense of collection proper from the general expenses of the Department or from the expenses partially borne by localities. The expense of equipment and maintenance of the Department, which includes all expenses of special agents and attorneys for services in all civil proceedings incident to the collection of the tax, penalties and forfeitures, is borne wholly by the State. County treasurers receive fees based on collections; their compensation being paid directly, viz.: one-third by the State and twothirds by the city or town benefited. Localities pay the expense of criminal prosecutions, some of which result in fines, of which one-third goes to the State and twothirds to the localities where the offense is committed. Special Agents also render services, at the expense of the State, to district attorneys and other officials, which were formerly a county charge. These and many other circumstances of local and State cooperation make it quite impracticable to determine the exact proportion of expense chargeable to the locality or State; but a study of the county tables furnished will give a clear understanding of the financial results produced in every city and town in the State. The benefits or disadvantages accruing to any particular locality under the new system of State control may be seen by comparing these results with those shown in corresponding tables made from the reports of the 963 local boards working under the old law. |