ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE JANUARY 4, 1869. ALBANY: THE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1870. SIR-I have the honor herewith to transmit my Annual Report, exhibiting the condition of the finances of this State at the close of the last fiscal year. REPORT. To the Legislature: The Comptroller, in compliance with the law requiring from him, at each annual meeting of the Legislature, an exhibit of the funds of the State, its revenues, and the expenditures from the treasury during the year preceding, together with an estimate of the probable expenditures for the year ensuing, and a statement of the sources of public revenue, and plans for their improvement, respectfully submits the following REPORT: No new debt has been created during the year past, and the indebtedness which existed at the commencement of the fiscal year ending on the 30th of September, 1869, has been considerably reduced. The tax levied for the year was less by nearly two and a half millions of dollars than that levied for the year preceding, and with the exception of the amount owing by the county of New York, which, by law, is not payable until the 1st of December, was principally paid into the State treasury before the close of the fiscal year. The taxes levied for the current year will be a trifle more in the aggregate than those levied for the past, the result of an increased valuation of the taxable property of the State by which a lower rate of taxation yields a larger sum in gross. If the appropriations were rigidly confined to the legitimate purposes of the State, and a proper economy in all necessary expenditures adhered to, it is believed that the taxation could be considerably reduced without interfering with the efficiency or usefulness of the government. It is true that the tax-payers have in the main hitherto submitted uncomplainingly to the increased burdens of the last few years, and have paid their taxes with commendable promptness. This they have been enabled to do by the condition of the monetary affairs of the country; but how long these burdens can be sustained without serious inconvenience cannot be foreseen. |