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REPORT.

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY,
TRENTON, November 1st, 1884.

To the Senate and General Assembly :

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The detailed report of the operations of this department, and the financial transactions of the State for the fiscal year ending October 31st, 1884, is herewith presented as required by law.

The duties imposed upon the Comptroller have been greatly increased by the operation of laws passed from time to time within the past few years. Each year changes are made in the laws governing both the collection and disbursement of the revenue of the several Funds of the State, and all of these changes impose new and additional duties and responsibilities upon this office. The most notable instances within the past two years have been the act requiring the public printing to be done by contract, and the laws of 1884 respecting the taxation of corporations.

The duties imposed upon the Comptroller by the first-named act involved the preparation of full and complete specifications, three times in each year, for the public printing and for the stationery required for the use of the several State officers, the advertisement for proposals, the drawing of contracts with the successful bidders, and the endless care required to secure the fulfillment of these contracts in all their minute details.

The purpose of the act was to abolish a system which had prevailed for many years, and inaugurate a new one upon a plan which was largely experimental, and in authorizing which the Legislature omitted to provide more than a mere outline, and left the composition of the details entirely to the Comptroller. Extraordinary pains were taken to put this system into successful operation, and this purpose has been accomplished, but one effect has been to greatly increase the labors of the Comptroller and of the clerical force of the department.

The acts of 1884, relating to the revenue of the State, have also

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greatly added to the work of the department. The act providing for the imposition of a tax on miscellaneous corporations has resulted in the imposition of taxes upon more than six hundred companies which were not taxable under previous laws, and the duty of collecting these taxes devolved upon this office. The act which changed the mode of assessing railroad and canal corporations not only included the invention of and keeping new forms of accounts between the State Treasury and the several corporations, but, providing as it did for the collection and disbursement of the tax levied for local purposes, it involved the invention and carrying out of a plan for keeping a sort of triangular set of accounts between the State, the railroad corporations, and the several municipalities for whose benefit a portion of the tax upon railroads was levied.

It is believed, however, that the difficult problems presented by these acts (as well as others of recent date, which it is unnecesary to recite here,) have been successfully met and solved, and it is proper to say that this has been done without increased expense to the State.

The financial transactions of the State, which will be embraced in this report, will comprise all the operations during the fiscal year for account of the several Funds, which are known as

1. The State Fund, which is the State Treasury proper, and embraces the collection and disbursement of all the revenue applicable to the expenses of maintaining the State government and its several institutions.

2. The School Fund, the operations for which comprise the collection of the annual revenue of the Fund, the payment of appropriations made therefrom by the Legislature for purposes of free public education and the investment of the surplus receipts.

3. The State School Tax, consisting of the collection and disbursement of the tax annually levied for the support of public schools.

4. The Agricultural College Fund, for which the operations are the collection and disbursement of the annual income of the Fund, as prescribed by law.

5. The Deaf and Dumb Fund, which consists of the sum derived from the proceeds of the sale of the Stevens Battery, under an order of the Court of Chancery, which proceeds were devoted by the Legislature to the special purpose of preparing and furnishing the New Jersey School for Deaf-Mutes.

The operations of these several Funds embrace all the financial transactions of the State, excepting those of the Sinking Fund, which are under the charge of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, and do not come within the purview of the State Treasury.

Each of the several Funds will be treated of in minute detail under their appropriate heads, but for convenience a brief summary of the results of the operations for account of each is presented below.

The State has no debt whatever excepting the outstanding bonds issued for purposes connected with the late civil war, and which are annually decreasing by the payment of specified sums from the State Fund and the Sinking Fund, as provided by law. These bonds now amount to one million five hundred and ninety-one thousand three hundred dollars ($1,591,300).

Early in the year it became necessary to effect a loan of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) to meet disbursements falling due before the revenue of the State was payable, which loan was effected at the rate of five (5) per centum interest, and was extinguished as soon as the receipts of the Treasury justified its payment.

No State tax was levied in the past year upon the property of private citizens, excepting the usual tax for the support of public schools, but the receipts have nevertheless been sufficient to meet all the demands upon the State Treasury during the year, and leave, at this date, a balance to the credit of all the Funds greater than that at the beginning of the year. The balance, at the date of the last report from this office, amounted in the aggregate to three hundred and twenty-two thousand four hundred and fifty-three dollars and seventy-eight cents ($322,453.78), and was distributed as follows:

The entire amount received into the Treasury during the year from all sources, including the payment of temporary loan, was three million and sixty-nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-five dollars and ninety-nine cents ($3,069,725.99), and the disbursements for account of all the Funds, including the payment of temporary loan and the investments for purposes of the School Fund, amounted in the aggregate to two million nine hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and eight dollars and sixty-two cents ($2,967,708.62), leaving a credit balance at this date of four hundred and twenty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one dollars and fifteen cents ($424,471.15). The following statement shows in a condensed form the receipts from all sources, and disbursements for all purposes during the year: