Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1913 — BUDGET MEASURE IS PASSED BY SENATE [ARTICLE]

BUDGET MEASURE IS PASSED BY SENATE

Senate- Increases Appropriations $23,000 Dollars More Than the * House Approved. Indianapolis,' Feb. 19.—Late today the senate passed under suspension, the regular appropriation bill amended so as to call for expenditure of $23,850 more than had been approved by the house The increases over the amount allowed by the house, amounted to $36,050, but this was deducted by three reductions made by the senate which totaled $12,200. Practically all of the increases were for salaries, though the state normal school at Terre Haute was given an additional maintenance fund of $7,500. To pay the judges of the supreme and appellate courts $7,500 annually will require $16,500 additional revenue per year. - ■ ( Stenographers of the judges were allowed $1,240, instead of SB4O, the assistant clerk of the supreme and appellate courts were increased from $1,200 to. SI,BOO, and the fee clerk was given S9OO instead of $750. Senator R. M. Jackson proposed to keep the salary of the assistant superintendent of public instruction at its present figure,. $2,000, instead of $2,500, as tha house had made it; the deputy superintendent at $1,500, instead of SI,BOO, and a clerk at $1,200, instead of $1,400, but he was defeated. Senator iFarling lost in his effort to increase a stenographer in the same office to S9OO from $720. u Senator G. C. Wood’s motion to make the traveling and incidental expense allowance of the state reference librarians department $5,000 instead of $9,200 was carried. Senator R. H. Jackson’s efforts were defeated when he proposed to maintain the salary of the clerk of the print ing board, which had been raised to $2,500 from $1,500, and to hold the salary of the assistant clerk to S9OO, which has been increased to $1,500. He also objected unsuccessfully to the increase of salary of from $2,500 to $3,500 for the supervisor of oil inspection and an increase of S9OO for clerk hire, which the house had raised from S6OO. Senator Grube, who had been opposing increases asked for and was granted the following increases: SSOO in salary of superintendent of public buildings, SI,OOO more for assistants, $1,200 to re-establish the office of assistant custodian, $1,200 additional for the carpenters and policemen at the state house. The salary of the clerk of the state board of accounts was raised to $3,006 from $2,506. The senate voted against the amendment of Senator G. C. Wood to reduce the allowance for clerical and expert assistants in the same department from SIB,OOO to $15,000. The chief clerk in the state board of health had his salary increased from $1,500 to $2,000 upon motion of Senator W. R. Wood. Five thousand dollars was cut off from the $20,000 item for incidental expenses of prosecutors by the health board. The third saving was cutting $3,000 off the $14,000 which the house had allowed the state board of charities for expenses. Thirteen new bills were Introduced during the day. Senator Cleveland, of Evansville, presented one to per mit the building of a coliseum there at the county’s expense and Senator Carleton, of the same city, one which would limit the tonnage of any train to 3,500 tons. Senator Clarke, of Indianapolis, presented a measure making it illegal to put insane persons in jail while awaiting hearings. The establishment of a rural banking system, similar to that recently adopted by the Virginia legislature, is proposed in a bill by Senator Neal. Under suspension of the rules the house po day passed the Carleton senate joint resolution ratifying the amendment to the federal constitution which provides for the election of United States senators by direct vote Representative Eschbach, the republican floor leader, In explaining his vote for the resolution. said he had voted against suspension of the rules because he saw no reason to hurry the action through the house The following senate bills were passed by the house: Kattmanp, concerning the construction of levees and dykes by incorporated associations, with minor house amendments; Ballou, prescribing a fine ranging from S2OO to SSOO for the pumping of natural gas from wells, and prohibiting oil companies from letting gas pacape from their wdls;

two Falkner bills, that corrected errors in the title and legalized salaries paid to St. Joseph county officials under an act passed by the preceding legislature; Stotsenburg, providing that firemen and brakemen have two years’ experience before they are advanced to engineers and conductors respectively; Ratts, reducing the time in which an appeal ean be taken to the supreme and appellate courts from one year to six months; Wood, providing that one general bond he given by county surveyors for all the work they may do. 'House bills that were passed follow: Hawkins, authorizing voluntary associations to take possession of public cemeteries in which no person or association has any equitable interest; Dunham, prescribing that the county surveyor, at the end of his term, shall turn over unfinished work to his successor; Hughes, giving the city of Indianapolis/the right to levy a tax to raise funds to assist in the construction of a coliseum; Van Horn, providing for the payment of the installation of conduits for municipal lighting systems by affected property owners; Bierly, giving cities the authority to enact ordinances to establish municipal commission houses for the sale of agricultural products. The Spencer bill. Increasing the tax levy for the benevolent educational and state sinking fund, was made a special order of business for Friday afternoon at 2 o’clock. The committee on ways and means which last night decided indefinite postponement on the W. W. Spencer measure to appropriate $28,000 to transport civil war veterans who participated in the battle of Gettysburg to the anniversary celebration in June, tpday presented a report favoring the measure. Representative Spencer explained that the vet rans had requested the committee to report favorably so that the house could take action on it Representative Bands, of South Bend, sent up a bill creating the office of state fire marshal at a salary of $4,000 annually. The first deputy is to receive $2,500 and the second deputy $2,000.