The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911 Page: 93
348 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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State Finances of Texas During Reconstruction.
Except for the increase in salaries under the Throckmorton gov-
ernment and the wastefulness of the constitutional convention of
1868, the expenditures to 1870 were not excessive. This is not
true, however, for the period of the Reconstruction thereafter.
Expenditures then were beyond the ability of the state, and the
best evidence thereof is that despite heavy taxation, bonds were sold
to pay current expenses and a large floating debt was accumulated.
The twelfth legislature exhibited a degree of profligacy and of open
disregard of the state's economic condition that clinches it in the
niche of notoriety that it holds in Texas legislative history. Mat-
ters might have been worse, though, and that they were not so was
due mainly to the integrity'of the governor in the administration
of the public finances.'
RECEIPTS2
The chief source of receipts during this period was taxation, and
the main tax was, as in previous periods, the ad valorem tax upon
real and personal property. The work of assessment and collec-
tion was performed until 1870 by an assessor and collector, but
thereafter assessment was by the justices of the peace, and collec-
tion by the sheriff of each county. Under the provisional govern-
ments assessment and collection were subject to special difficulties.
The war had disorganized the machinery of administration, and
in many of the counties it was impossible, owing to the opposition
of the people to military authority, to secure an assessor and col-
lector. In 1868, for example, thirty-nine counties out of one hun-
dred and twenty-five had vacancies in the office. It was not infre-
quent, too, that those who qualified were inexperienced, inefficient,
or corrupt.8 Despite these difficulties, however, receipts from taxes
before 1870 were, proportionately to the rate and the total assess-
ments, more satisfactory than after 1870. This better showing
was due, in the first place, to the more rigid collection under the
military authorities, and, in the second place, to less burdensome
rates. A number of circumstances contributed to the disarrange-
1Ramsdell, Reconstruction in Texas, 318.
'See Appendix B, page 112.
8Comptroller's report, 1868-9, p. 4. In 1870 defaulting and delinquent
officers were due the State $350,000. Comptroller's Report, 1870, p. 20.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911, periodical, 1911; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101054/m1/107/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.