The increase of taxation for State purposes is in part due to the amount collected for the asylum building fund, which exceeds the amount required last year for building purposes by almost $300,000. Making due allowance for this, the important fact remains that both State and local taxes have largely increased.
A remedy for this evil can only be had through the General Assembly. The most important measures to prevent this rapid increase of taxation, which have heretofore been recommended, are a revision of the financial system of the State in accordance with bills prepared by a board of commissioners appointed for that purpose, in pursuance of an act passed March 18, 1867; short sessions of the General Assembly; adequate fixed salaries for all State, county, and municipal officers, without perquisites; and definite and effectual limitations upon the power of county commissioners, city councils, and other local authorities to levy taxes and contract debts.
The constitution makes it the duty of the legislature to restrict the powers of taxation, borrowing money, and the like, so as to prevent their abuse. I respectfully suggest that the present laws conferring these powers on local authorities require extensive modification, in order to comply with this constitutional provision. Two modes of limiting these powers have the sanction of experience. All large expenditures should meet the approval of those who are to bear their burden. Let all extraordinary expenditures therefore be submitted to a vote of the people, and no tax be levied unless approved by a majority of all the voters of the locality to be affected by the tax, at a special election, the number of voters to be ascertained by reference to the votes cast at the State election next preceding such special election. Another mode is to limit the rate of taxation which may be levied and the amount of debt which may be incurred. It has been said that with such restrictions upon the powers of local authorities the legislature will be importuned and its time wasted in hearing applications for special legislation. The ready answer to all such applications by local authorities will be to refer them to their own citizens for a decision of the question. The facility with which affirmative votes can be obtained under the pressure of temporary excitement upon propositions authorizing indebtedness may require further restrictions upon the power to borrow money. It is therefore suggested, for your consideration, to limit the amount of debt for a single purpose, and the total amount for all purposes which any local authority may contract to a certain percentage of the taxable property of such locality.
The evils here considered are not new. Fourteen years ago Governor Medill, in his annual message, used the following language, which is as applicable to county and municipal affairs now as it was when it was written: "The irresponsible and extravagant system of administration which prevails in some of our counties and cities furnishes the principal cause for the exactions which are so generally complained of. There public contracts are given to favorites, which occasion the most lavish expenditures. There also we find officers with incomes which shock all correct ideas of public compensation. These things have their effect upon the general tone of public morals. County reform is a duty enjoined by every consideration of public virtue."
The whole of this important subject is commended to your candid consideration.
The management of the affairs of the penitentiary, during the past year, has been good; discipline has been maintained; under kind and judicious treatment the prisoners have been industrious and orderly, and the pecuniary results are satisfactory. The number of prisoners, on the 31st of October, 1869, was 974, and the number of convicts admitted during the year ending on that day was 347. This is a decrease compared with the preceding year, of 27 in the number of convicts admitted, and of 67 in the number confined in the penitentiary.
| The earnings during the year ending October 31, were | $175,663.06 |
| The expenses were | 143,635.83 |
| Excess of earnings over expenditures | $32,027.23 |
| Last year the earnings were | $171,037.45 |
| The expenses were | 141,794.95 |
| And the excess of earnings over expenses were | $29,242.50 |
A large proportion of the convicts, when admitted, are quite young. The age of about one-third does not exceed twenty-one years. More than two-thirds of the inmates of the prison are now under thirty years of age. It will occur to any one who considers these facts that, under our system of prison discipline, too little effort has heretofore been made to reform these young men. A high authority has said, "No human being is so debased and wicked that he can not be reclaimed." It is believed that, under a wise system, the young, at least, can be reformed and prepared for useful and worthy citizenship. The present system has two capital defects—the mingling in intimate association of the young with the hardened criminals, and the failure to educate the convicts in habits of thrift and self-control. The defects are in the system. The convict, when he leaves the penitentiary, is exposed to greater temptations than ever before, and the result of his prison life is that he has less power to resist evil influences, and, too often, less disposition to resist them. I do not enlarge upon the objections to the present system; it is not claimed to be reformatory. In a recent report, the directors said: "The great mass of convicts still leave the penitentiary apparently as hardened and as dangerous to the State as they were when they were sentenced." The vital question is, how to remove this reproach on our penal legislation. In considering it, I commend to you the remarks of the board of State charities on the Irish convict system. The distinguishing merit of that system is, that "it enlists the co-operation of the prisoner in his own amendment, without withholding from him the punishment due to his crime." If the adoption of that system, with such modifications as our condition requires, is deemed an experiment which it is inexpedient for the State to try until its advantages are better understood, I submit that the least that ought now to be attempted is to provide for a classification of convicts, so as to separate beginners in crime from hardened offenders. Whether this can best be done by alterations and an extension of the present penitentiary or by the erection of a new one, is for your wisdom to determine.
In several other States voluntary associations have been formed to provide for, encourage, and furnish employment to discharged convicts, and their efforts have been of incalculable benefit to this unfortunate class. If a similar association should be formed by the benevolent citizens of Ohio, they will reasonably expect to receive proper assistance from the General Assembly, and in that expectation I trust they will not be disappointed.
The total number of persons of school age in the State, in 1869, was officially reported at 1,028,675—an increase of 11,108 over the previous year. The total number enrolled in the public schools in 1869 was 740,382—an increase of 8,610 over the year 1868. The average daily attendance in the public schools in 1869 was 434,865—an increase over 1868 of 24,144.