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The Comptroller.

The work of this office is the subject of Chapter VIII.

Until the passage of the Hinman act amending the tax law and establishing the state tax department, the comptroller was in charge of several important financial functions in connection with the supervision. of the levying and collecting of taxes. The governor has signed the bill and when the office is organized practically the only proprietary activity carried on by the comptroller will be the general supervision which he exercises over the state printing. This responsibility should be placed in an officer who performs the services of a central purchasing agent and the comptroller should be in a position to pass critically and report on his acts. Need for a Central Accounting and Property Division

No more potent argument in favor of the establishment of an executive organization for providing administrative information through the keeping of accounts, can be had than that presented during the governor's hearings on finance bills. There the chief executive of the state, responsible to the people for the economical administration of all departments immediately under his supervision and partially responsible for all expenditures on account of the veto power vested in him, is required to pass upon detailed financial requirements without any machinery having been provided to supply the needed information.

The only central accounting agency at the present time is that maintained by the comptroller. All accounts are established by the comptroller for the purposes of his office, and, considering this fact, it is not surprising that these accounts do not reflect the information necessary to the chief executive in the administration of his many departments. It would be as unwise to require the comptroller to maintain the kind of accounts needed by the governor as it would be to continue the present inadequate system. The comptroller is responsible to the people for one specific function, i. e., financial auditing. The governor is responsible to the people for the administration of the state's affairs. The accounts needed to prevent the misappropriation of funds or mischarging against appropriation bills are entirely inadequate and essentially different from those needed by the chief executive in enforcing proper administration in the various departments, bureaus and offices, for whose actions he is responsible.

What is needed is obvious: a central accounting and property division under the complete supervision of the particular official—the governor to whom the information is absolutely essential for the enforcement of administrative economy and efficiency.

A Central Purchasing Division

With the exception of the work undertaken by the fiscal supervisor and special committees in the institutional departments and the central

control over the state printing, nothing has been done to place the purchasing of the state of New York upon an efficient basis. Otherwise, practically every department, board, bureau and office of the state government carries on its purchasing wholly independently of any central control, except that of audit.

Economy in purchasing depends upon two factors: (1) the establishment of standard specifications, and (2) the standardization of purchasing methods, which is usually accompanied by the centralization of a large part of the purchasing.

What is needed is a strong central agency which will develop and enforce the use of standard specifications, standardize purchasing methods and actually purchase all supplies, materials and equipment which can. economically be purchased through a central agency.

It has been suggested that when the salary standardization and classification work of the present senate committee on civil service is completed, its activities be directed to the standardization of purchasing specifications. But no matter what agency is selected for the pioneer work in this study, it is essential that some organization be set up which will carry on the routine activities connected with the standardization of specifications and purchasing methods.

In addition to these departments of government which are designated in the constitution and which have been developed by legislation, there are a number of other departments charged with financial and proprietary functions. These are entirely separate from the departments designated in the constitution.

The Tax Department

The present tax departiment, as reorganized by law during the last session of the legislature, is a development from a former organization called "the tax commission." The duties of the new tax department, which is under the supervision of a commission, may be briefly stated as the combined duties of the former board of tax commissioners and the former duties of the comptroller in supervising the levying and collection of corporation franchises, transfer and mortgage taxes. The former board of tax commissioners had supervision over the local tax officials, and every second year were required to visit each county to inquire into methods of assessment. It approved assessment maps for cities and towns, determined appeals in the matter of county equalization of assessments, fixed and determined annually the values of special franchise property and equalized the assessment thereof with other real property in the city, town or village where special franchise property is located, supervised the operation of the mortgage tax law, audited the mortgage tax collections and examined the records of county clerks and registers in connection therewith. Members of this board were also members of the state board of equalization that prepared data on

which the equalization table was adopted. This duty has also been transferred to the new tax department. For further detail as to the organization of the former tax commission see pages 263-267 of the report on the organization and functions of the state government.

The transfer tax bureau, the corporation tax bureau, the secured debt tax bureau and the mortgage tax division, formerly of the comptroller's office, had charge of the activities transferred to the new tax department. A detailed statement of the organization and functions of these divisions of the tax commission and the comptroller's office before the transfer may be found in the descriptive report on the organization and functions of the state government. In this relation attention is called to the fact that the reorganization does not provide for the establishment of amounts to be collected, and for the collection of the amounts so determined. This is a division of functions that could be readily made in case of consolidation of all financial functions under one "political head with separate "technical" bureau heads for carrying on the busi

ness.

Department of Excise

Certain activities of the department of excise are to be included in the general proprietary activities of the state. These have to do with licensing liquor dealers or the determination of facts and conditions, knowledge of which is essential to fixing the charge. The department also collects amounts assessed against retail liquor dealers, together with fines, penalties, forfeitures and transfers and pays one-half of same to the city or town in which the collections are made. In addition, the department collects taxes paid by the bottlers of malt liquors and common carriers, and forfeited tax bonds. It prosecutes or defends civil actions or proceedings brought under the liquor tax law. (See pages 125-131 of report on organization and functions of the state government.)

Here is another case of defective organization due to the decentralization of the financial functions, and the collection of discordant functions under the one administrator. It does not contribute to good administration to put in the hands of one man the powers and duties above enumerated unless provision is made for central control through inspection, etc. If all the financial functions were under one executive there would be a choice of alternatives that is now lacking.

The Centralization of Financial Administration

The mere enumeration of the different departments and boards and commissions having financial functions and their respective duties is itself a criticism of the present system. The decentralization of revenue control is thus evident. For example, the tax commission, the board of equalization, and the comptroller's office all have arbitrary jurisdictional

rights over certain phases of the state's taxation and revenue problems. Moreover, practically all of the important departments of government and the governor himself are engaged in collecting miscellaneous revenue through the issuance of various kinds of licenses, permit privileges and the charging of fees that could be much more effectively managed if the whole subject were considered as a part of one problem.

Year after year recommendations have been presented to the legislature and bills have been prepared looking toward centralization of related financial activities. The opportunity is now presented to the convention to provide efficient and responsible financial administration through the creation of great departments of government and the proper delimitation of their spheres according to standards worked out and successfully applied in both public and private business.

Conservation Department

The conservation department by its title is essentially a proprietary organization, but on account of the fact that certain protective and regulative duties have, in the past, been assigned to this department, only certain of its activities may come properly within the scope of this chapter. These are the work of:

1. The division of lands and forests-which is charged with the administration of the laws enacted to protect the lands and forests of the state which comprehends tree culture, reforestation, care and management, of state parks and reservations, and the protection of the lands and forests from fire.

2. The division of inland waters-which is charged with the administration, subject to the approval of the commission, of all laws relating to state jurisdiction over water storage and hydraulic development, water supply, river improvement, drainage, irrigation and navigation of water ways other than canals.

3. Division of fish and game-which is charged with the administration, subject to the approval of the commission, of the laws relating to state jurisdiction over fish and game, and for the propagation thereof, including the propagation and protection of shell fish and shell fish beds, the issuance of hunters' licenses and the maintenance of a game protective force.

(See pages 727-741 of report on the organization and functions of government.)

There would seem to be little reason for the existence of a separate department of conservation in any event. Having in mind effective correlation of functions, there is another group, "Public Works," into which it might be brought for purposes of administration. The justification for this would be that, while the works group is one which renders a public service in operating a canal, its primary function is providing public facilities for transportation-the primary prerequisite of which is the acquisition and maintenance of great state properties. The setting aside of the conservation divisions as a special proprietary group could be justified by reference to the highly specialized and technical requirement of proprietary management. Again there are direct public aspects of the conservation department which would suggest placing it in some public service group. It is only a question as to which would provide the better correlation of activities and forces used.

Commissioners of the Land Office

Public lands of the state and general management of Indian affairs are under the control and direction of this commission-an ex-officio board composed of the secretary of state, lieutenant-governor, speaker of assembly, comptroller, treasurer, attorney-general, and the state engineer. This has all the weakness of an ex-officio organization. What is needed is an administrative head who is responsible to an executive. In so far as it is desired to utilize the services of an ex-officio board they should form an ordinance body, and not an executive.

A group of state agencies closely allied in their functions to those now vested in the conservation department and land office, is found in the various commissions charged with custody of historic buildings and parks scattered over the state. These will be found described in the report on organization and functions, pages 725 to 755. With whatever group the conservation work is associated, it is thought that the supervision of these parks and memorials might well go with it.

The Attorney General

It has been said concerning administrative law that legislatures express opinions about what should be done, but the one who makes the law is the corporation counsel or attorney general. What is meant is this: that the law must be construed each time an officer acts; that with respect to perhaps nine hundred ninety-nine acts out of a thousand there is no difference of opinion between officers as to the way it should be construed; that when differences arise these are referred to the executive who must give final approval, and if he does not wish to assume responsibility for deciding what construction should govern the transaction he refers the matter to the law office for opinion. Now, the law officer is simply an adviser, but what gives him his power as a lawmaker is the fact that

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