Page Six
THE UNITED AMERICAN
of the State of Oregon at the close of 1925. The na
turalized citizen should study this report as well as
his native bom American neighbor. He has an in
terest beyond the personal in the economic well
being of his state.
The total bonded indebtedness of the State of Ore
gon on January 1st, 1926, was, according to State
Treasurer Kay’s report, $60,692,710.
The bonds for highways constitute the largest
item, aggregating $37,263,750. The state bond issue
to aid the world war veterans comes next with
$21,000,000.
Oregon District interest bonds, outstanding,
amount to $1,978,960, while the item of Rural Credit
Farm Loan bonds, outstanding, is listed at $450,000.
These bonds by way of listed offsets amounting to
over twenty-two and one half millions, are again re
duced materially, showing an actual outstanding in
debtedness of only $37,937,781.38.
The offsets are listed as follows:
Rural credit farm, mortgages.................................. $ 450,000.00
Irrigation district certificates of indebtedness..
1,978,960.00
World war veterans’ state aid sinking fund........
2,848,163.63
World war veterans’ state aid first mortgage
loans receivable ........................................... 15,510,047.74
Cash to be converted into mortgages.................
1,967,757.25
Total .............................................................. $22,754,928.62
Deducting this amount from the original bonding
total brings the net outstanding amount down to
$37,937,781.38.
As ample provision for the redemption of the bal
ance of these bonds has been provided, general taxa
tion will not be necessary to liquidate them, except in
the case of the irrigation bonds if the districts should
become delinquent in their payments in which event
the state would issue district interest bonds. As there
are no floating or warrant debts in addition to the
bonded debt, Oregon, as a financial institution, is on a
cash basis.
It is interesting to note that the first bonds issued
by the state and now outstanding was an issue for
$450,000 to establish rural credits. The state’s se
curity is in farm lands and bears interest at five per
cent. The bonds are offset by a corresponding amount
of real estate mortgages.
The state constitution provides that such bonds
may be issued up to two per cent of the assessed valu
ation of the state’s taxable property, but as federal
agencies for this purpose have since been established,
no more rural credit bonds have been issued.
The need of highways necessitated the next state
bonding issue. A constitutional amendment was en
acted to make state bonding for roads possible. Under
this act, however, the state cannot bond for highways
to exceed four per cent of the total assessed property
valuation in the state.
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On May eighth the secretary of state, Sam A.
Kozer, issued a report covering the maiiy varied and
segregated items of cost in state government and
the various sources of revenue. On analyzing Kozer’s
report one is amazed at the staggering cost of govern-
May 1926
ment in Oregon, a state with only three quarters of a
million people. Surely it is time in Oregon that
something is done to simplify the operation of govern
ment and thereby the cost. The annual item for
bonded indebtedness cannot be reduced, but the cost
of operating the subdivisions through which the
state government functions can and should be re
duced before the cheap tinhorn politicians who are
responsible, from the governor down, have been re
moved from office.
In the Secretary’s report are some very interest
ing itemizations of revenue and expense. The report,
which follows, should be carefully read by every new
citizen and placed aside after reading, but always
within easy reach to prove any contentions for
political economy:
The taxes of the state of Oregon and these same political
subdivisions for the year 1926 aggregate $44,975,048.10. The
state’s share of this amount is $7,200,830.79. Of this latter
amount $2,169,075.24 constitutes the 2-mill levy for element
ary schools, each county’s portion thereof, upon collection, re
maining within the county for distribution for school pur
poses, as provided by law.
Tax List Itemized
For strictly county purposes within the respective counties,
the tax is $3,540,596; for county school and library purposes,
$3,079,417.89; for high school tuition, $869,087.50; for special
school levies in school districts. $10,692,862.84; for general
roads in the counties, $3,090,330.18; for special road levies,
$1,368,137.58; for market road levies by the counties, $1,214,-
844.12; for bond interest and redemption in the counties, $2,-
177,076.97; for requirements of the various cities and towns
the special levies aggregate $8,195,337.02; for requirements
of the various irrigation and drainage districts, $1,826,178.23;
for the organized ports in a number of the counties, $1,588,-
371.81; for miscellaneous purposes, $3,022.23, and for fire
patrol, $128,954.79.
Property Levy Doubled
In a period of thirteen years the property taxes for all
purposes have been multiplied nearly two and one half times.
In addition, the people will pay various other vocational and
business taxes, licenses, fees and impositions, which for. the
state and its many political subdivisions, I believe, will aggre
gate another $25,000,000 for the current year, making a grand
total of approximately $70,000,000 which the residents and
property owners of Oregon will contribute for the support of
governmental functions in 1926.
An analysis of the foregoing figures discloses that the
great increase in the property taxes is occasioned through the
requirements of our schools and in the construction of roads
and highways. For school purposes in the year 1913 the
aggregate requirements were $5,256,059, while for the year
1926 they total $14,641,368.23. In the year 1913 the aggre
gate amount levied for roads was $2,288,256, while for the
year 1926 the total is $7,850,388.85. The amount levied for
these two purposes for the year 1926 is over $4,000,000 more
than the requirements for all purposes of the state, counties,
municipalities, school districts, etc., for the year 1913.
Referring to the several state penal, reformative, curative
and eleemosynary institutions, it is found that the average
total population in the years 1899 and 1900 was 1746, and
the average monthly per capita cost ranged from $10, in the
state hospital for the insane at Salem, to $25 in the state
school for blind children. By the end of March, 1926 the
total population of such institutions had grown to 4900, and
the monthly per capita cost ranged from $16.90, for the
eastern Oregon state hospital at Pendleton, to $59.13 for the
employment institution for the adult blind at Portland.
In the year 1899 there was six such state institutions,
which number has been added to until there are now eleven
institutions for the detention and care of the wards of the
state. In 1899 there were a state university, an agricultural
college and four normal schools, situated in various sections
of the state, with a total student registration of less than
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