tate constitution on
the subject of State indebtedness.

It is not enough to require in every grant of special authority to
incur debt as a condition precedent that the people interested
shall approve it by their votes. It is well known how easily such
elections are carried under the influence of local excitement and
local rivalries. If the rule of the State constitution which
forbids all debts except in certain specified emergencies is deemed
too stringent to be applied to local affairs, the legislature
should at least accompany every authority to contract debt with an
imperative requirement that a tax sufficient to pay off the
indebtedness within a brief period shall be immediately levied, and
thus compel every citizen who votes to increase debts to vote at
the same time for an immediate increase of taxes sufficient to
discharge them.

The wisdom of the policy long since adopted of placing a judicious
limitation on the power of municipal authorities to levy taxes has
been vindicated by experience. It must, however, ultimately fail to
accomplish its object if the increase of municipal indebtedness is
allowed to go on. To authorize a town to contract a debt, whose
expenditures already require taxation up to the limit allowed by
law, is, in its necessary effect, tantamount to a repeal of the
limitation.

Under the provisions of the eighth article of the constitution,
already referred to, the State debt, notwithstanding the
extraordinary expenditures of the war, has been reduced from over
twenty millions, the amount due in 1851, until it is now only about
seven millions. An important part of the constitutional provisions
which have been so successful in State finances is the section
which requires the creation of a sinking fund and the annual
payment of a constantly increasing sum on the principal of the
State debt. Let a requirement analogous to this be enacted in
regard to existing local indebtedness; let a judicious limitation
of the rate of taxation which local authorities may levy be
strictly adhered to, and allow no further indebtedness to be
authorized except in conformity with these principles; and we may,
I believe, confidently expect that within a few years the burdens
of debt now resting upon the cities and towns of the State