APPROPRIATIONS, EXPIRATION OF. Where no indebtedness is created against an appropriation during a biennial period, it expires at the end of such period. This does not apply to an appropriation for a relief bill, which continues until paid. Denver, Colo., July 8, 1903. HON. WHITNEY NEWTON, State Treasurer, HON. JOHN A. HOLMBERG, Auditor of State, Denver, Colo. Gentlemen-I have inquired into the following list of appropriations passed by the Twelfth General Assembly, in 1899: APPROPRIATIONS BY THE TWELFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY REMAINING UNPAID-EMERGENCY CLAUSE ATTACHED. 1. S. B. No. 143, appropriated for Insane Asylum building, approved April 13, 1899, 11:20 a. m., $40,000.00. 2. S. B. No. 76, appropriated for Penitentiary improvement, approved April 13, 1899, 11:25 a. m., $4,000.00. 3. S. B. No. 194, appropriated for Reformatory heating plant, approved April 13, 1899, 11:32 a. m., $8,500.00. 4. H. B. No. 266, appropriated for Paris Exposition, approved April 12, 1899, 12:04 m., $250.00. 5. S. B. No. 296, appropriated for Girls' Industrial School. building, approved April 18, 1899, 3:40 p. m., $25,000.00. S. B. No. 104, appropriated for Reformatory relief, approved April 4, 1899, 10:55 a. m., $22,631.00. 7. S. B. No. 29, appropriated for Colorado Volunteers, Civil War, approved April 4, 1899, 11:50 a. m., $2,500.00. 8. S. B. No. 282, appropriated for Board of Library Commissioners, approved April 10, 1899, 9:20 a. m., $500.00. g. S. B. No. 143, appropriated for Insane Asylum deficit, approved April 13, 1899, 11:20 a. m., $18,636.40. 10. S. B. No. 61, appropriated for Deaf and Blind, approved April 13, 1899, 11:22 a. m., $22,569.00. 11. S. B. No. 74, appropriated for Peniteniary deficiency, approved April 13, 1899, 11:37 a. m., $25,704.02. 12. S. B. No. 131, appropriated for Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, approved April 13, 1899, 3:00 p. m., $45,000.00. 13. H. B. No. 154, appropriated for Normal School, approved April 13, 1899, 2:30 p. m., $25,000.00. 14. H. B. No. 206, appropriated for School of Mines, approved April 13, 1899, 2:30 p. m., $60,000.00. 15. H. B. No. 207, appropriated for University, approved April 13, 1899, 2:30 p. m., $110,000.00. 16. S. B. No. 152, appropriated for Agricultural College, approved April 13, 1899, 2:30 p. m., $15,000.00. EMERGENCY CLAUSE OMITTED. 17. S. B. No. 30, appropriated for Colorado Volunteers, Spanish-American War, approved April 6, 1899, 12:30 m., $2,500.00. 18. H. B. No. 100, appropriated for W. L. Gilbert, relief, approved April 13, 1899, 10 a. m., $900.00. 19. H. B. No. 91, appropriated for Grand county fish hatchery, approved April 14, 1899, 1:45 p. m., $2,500.00. 20. S. B. No. 10, appropriated for certificate of indebtedness, approved April 18, 1899, 5:30 p. m., $555.00. 21. S. B. No. 395, appropriated for L. S. Jones, relief, approved April 19, 1899, 2:25 p. m., $3,000.00. The records of your offices show that the revenues of the biennial period of 1899-1900 were not sufficient to meet the cur rent expenses of the government. The foregoing appropriations, therefore, were not available. The current expenses of the institutions to which any of those appropriations refer were met by deficiency certificates. Those deficiency certificates have been taken care of by the special appropriation of the Fourteenth General Assembly, found on page 103 of the Session Laws of 1903. Therefore, while debts are created against some of the foregoing appropriations, yet these liabilities have been cared for by the appropriation of 1903; moreover, where no indebtedness was created against the appropriation, it expired at the end of the biennial period. An appropriation only survives a biennial period for which it was made for the purpose of paying debts contracted against it during the biennial period. After that time has expired, an appropriation which was not available within the biennial period, is not liable to any debt to be created against it after the expiration. This criticism, however, does not apply to a relief bill, such as is embraced in items 18 and 21. The difference is this: The indebtedness and responsibility of the State had already been incurred before the appropriation was made; the duty of appro priating money to relieve the person already existed; therefore, when money comes into the fiscal years out of which that appropriation is to be made, such money must be first pledged to the payment of that relief, or liability. But, in the other case to which I have referred, no liability existed and no debt was created during the biennial period, or previous to the appropriation. None can be created after the expiration of the biennial period. So that you will consider these appropriations as dead, and you have only to deal with certificates of indebtedness and the moneys belonging to the fiscal years 1899-1900, after paying items 18 and 21, should be carried into the general fund for the succeeding years in the order of succession. If any liabilities exist against the specific appropriation of 1901-1902, you ought to pay them. The balance will become a surplus of 1901-1902, and, under the appropriation of the Fourteenth General Assembly, will become liable for the deficiency certificates. If there are any specific appropriations of 1901-1902 unpaid they should be first paid before you consider a surplus available for the payment of certificates of indebtedness, and I consider this course wise, for, if a different construction be adopted, it could only lead to these specific appropriations remaining unsatisfied and will require special legislation from some future Legislature. Besides, it is a departure from the regular and uniform practice of your departments. I understand the surplus of 1901-1902 and 1903-1904 to mean the money remaining over and above what is required to meet the liabilities which were incurred in those fiscal years. The liabilities of those particular years are to be paid first before you are to consider the balance as existing for the purpose of the surplus fund mentioned in the act of 1903, at page 103. I wish to call your attention especially to 18 and 21, which are relief bills for W. .L. Gilbert and L. S. Jones, respectively. Ordinarily, the sufficiency of a relief bill can not be determined upon the face of it. You must go behind the bill and find out what the facts are. Some of them are good and some of them are bad. Therefore, it will be necessary for you to inquire into the facts before you issue vouchers for them. Respectfully, N. C. MILLER, APPROPRIATION FOR DEPENDENT AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN. The appropriation for the State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children is of the second class. Denver, Colo., June 27, 1903. HON. WHITNEY NEWTON, Treasurer of State, Capitol. Dear Sir-In regard to your inquiry as to the classification of appropriations for the State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children, I would say that to answer this it is necessary to construe the act regulating the payment of appropriations, found in Session Laws of 1897, page 21, and the amendment thereof in Session Laws of 1899 at page 21, and also the act establishing the State Home, approved April 10, 1895, found in 3 M. A. S., section 422a to section 422s. The act of 1897 regulating the payment of appropriations in the case that the available revenues of the state for any fiscal year are insufficient to meet all the appropriations made for such year, divided the appropriations into five classes. It is apparent from an inspection of this act that the appropriations for the maintenance and support of the State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children must fall within either the second or third classes. These two classes are as follows: "Second. Appropriations for all institutions such as the Penitentiary, Insane Asylum, Industrial School and the like, wherein the inmates are confined involuntarily, shall be next paid. "Third. Appropriations for educational and charitable institutions." It is this third class that was amended by the act of 1899, providing for a pro rata distribution in the case of a deficiency to pay in full all of the appropriations under this classification. It will be seen, therefore, that it is necessary to determine whether the State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children is an institution wherein the inmates are confined involuntarily. If it is, then the appropriation for its maintenance and support falls within the second class, and if not, it is an educational or charitable institution, and falls within the third class. It therefore becomes necessary to examine the act establishing the State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children to determine whether it is an institution wherein the inmates are confined involuntarily. The act establishing the Home, in the first section thereof, defines it as "an institution," and our Supreme Court says of it: "It is now an established institution of the State." Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, 22 Colo., 86, 101. Parks vs. A reading of this act will show that while it is not an institution wherein the inmates are confined involuntarily, in the sense that they are committed to it by reason of the conviction of any criminal offense, yet it requires for the commitment of a child to the institution that the County Commissioners of the County wherein the child is, shall file a petition in the County Court, stating that in their opinion the child is dependent on the public for support, is under the age of sixteen years, sound in mind and body, and has no parent against whom its support can be enforced as provided by law, and certain other facts, upon the filing of which petition, certain proceedings are required to be had before the court, and witnesses examined, and if the court, after hearing such evidence, finds that the child is dependent on the public for support, or is neglected or maltreated, or has not a suitable home, the court is required to enter such finding by a proper order, certifying that the child is entitled to admission to the State Home, and ordering that it be sent to the Home by the County Commissioners and admitted therein. It is also provided that on the entering of such an order, the parents or guardians of the child shall have no further duties toward, or responsibility for such child, and shall thereafter have no rights over or to the custody, services or earnings of such child, except in cases where the Board of the Home, may, as in the act provided, thereafter restore the child to its parents. There is no provision in the act for the commitment of a child upon its own application, or that of its guardian or parents, so that, from all these provisions, it appears to me that the reasonable interpretation of the act is that it is such an institution as is entitled to the payment of the appropriations for its maintenance and support as of the second class, under the act of 1897. Yours respectfully, N. C. MILLER, |