Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1920 — STATE AUDITOR DEMANDS AN EXTRA SESSION [ARTICLE]

STATE AUDITOR DEMANDS AN EXTRA SESSION

Indianapolis, March 19.—There । will be a special session of the General Assembly within the next ninety days to appropriate addition-, al funds for the state institutions or the institutions will have to close, Otto L. Klauss, auditor of state, declared in a statement issued yesterday. By the last of next month at: least three of the institution will, have exhausted their appropria- | tions, Mr. Klauss said, and by the end of June a majority of the institutions will be out of funds. , “When the present appropria- ; tions are exhausted I will not draw ; warrants on the general fund to pay the institutional bills,” Mr. Klauss said. “I see no reason,” he continued, “why the assembly can not convene and pass on the institutional appropriations, the proposal to erect. a war memorial building and cor- j rection of election laws and then i adjourn.” It is pointed out in the state- j ment that the institutions will in- ( cur a deficit of at least $300,000 during the present fiscal year and that the auditor will not continue. “ta shoulder the responsibility” in caring for deficits out of the general fund. Mr. Klauss explains that in 1918 under the stress of war he consented to the use of the general fund to meet appropriation deficits and that this action was legalized by the 1919 General Assembly. When prices continued abnormally high in 1919, Mr. Klaus said, and the appropriations again failed to cover the maintenance costs, he followed the precedent of the year * before in the expectation that a special session of the Assembly would be called early this year to approve the action. The by Mr. Klauss follows m part: “As it is now certain that the appropriations for the state institutions will fall short of their needs during the present fiscal year, a special session of the General Assembly must be called within the next ninety days to appropriate additional revenue. Within the next month at least three of the institutions will exhaust their appropriations for the fiscal year of 19191920 and by July a majority of the institutions will be out of funds. I»have determined that when the present appropriations are depleted I will not draw warrants on the general fund to meet the bills. Unless the legislature is called in special session I see no alternative but to close the institutions.