The Times News

HIGHWAY FUND
WOULD BE CUT
ALMOST HALF
State Hospital Would Lose Nearly $150,000 a
Year by Budget

The Times-News Bureau
Sir Walter Hotel
RALEIGH, Jan. 18.—The new appropriation bill, as recommended by the advisory budget commission, calls for appropriations of approximately $24,000,000 annually for the next biennium, which is nearly $3,000,000 under the actual annual expenditures for the past two years and about $6,000,000 a year under the amount requested by the various departments and institutions exclusive of the agricultural and highway departments, which get their revenue from separate funds.

Actual expenditures of departments and institutions supported by the general fund amounted to $26,876,310 in 1931-32, and $26,745,238 (estimated) in 1932-33, while the advisory budget commission's recommendations for the years 1933-34 and 1934-35 were $23,820,955 and $24,421,840, respectively. The amounts requested by the institutions and the departments for the next two years were $29,561,745 and $30,238,856.

Appropriations out of the agriculture fund, supporting the department of agriculture, the State Fair, the experiment station and seed improvement divisions at State College, were $325,561 in 1931-32 and $269,110 in 1932-33 (estimated), while the advisory budget commission recommends an expenditure of only $245,960 annually for the next two years.

Appropriations out of the highway fund were set by the advisory budget commission for the next biennium as $9,010,524 and $8,972,724, as compared with actual expenditures of $18,165,795 and $14,099,725 during the preceding biennium. Including debt service, the figures for the past biennium were $26,125,847 and $22,484,840, while recommendations for the forthcoming biennium, including debt service, were $14,783,260 and $14,746,438.

Thus, while considerable savings have been effected in the budget commission's recommendations, by far the greatest trimming has been made off expenditures out of the highway fund, this cut amounting to almost 50 per cent.

Should the advisory budget commission's recommendations be carried out, the following are some of the departmental savings which would be effected annually for the next two years under the general fund expenditures:
Legislature $11,035
Judicial 41,950
Board of Charities 19,190
State Board of Health 35,720
Dept. of Conservation 32,400
Dept. of Revenue 88,250
Local Govt. Commission 29,140
Univ. of N. C. (Con.) 698,560
N. C. College for Negroes 17,330
State Hospital at Raleigh 135,290