62 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI
which a large amount of bonds are issued. This would be the
case if retirements exceeded new issues or if sinking fund
assets were increased by an amount larger than new issues,
or if the two factors in combination were more than suffi-
cient to counterbalance new issues. It is important to
remember that the change in net bonded debt from year to
year involves consideration of new issues, retirements, and
change in sinking fund assets.
Net Bonded Debt of Missouri and Other States
The net bonded debt of Missouri at the end of 1928
amounted to $64.4 million, as is shown in Table 18. Be-
tween the close of the fiscal year 1927 and the close of the
fiscal year 1928 there was a decline of more than $1 million.
No state bond issues were floated in 1928, and the decline
indicated is therefore directly attributable to retirements and
change in sinking fund assets. The increase in state net
bonded debt was particularly marked between 1922 and the
end of 1926. In 1921 the net bonded debt of the state was
only $1.5 million. The $25 million of new issues floated in
1922 resulted in a tremendous increase in net bonded debt,
which at the close of the year amounted to $25.9 million.!
In 1923 there was some increase, but the principal increases
occurred in 1924, 1925, and 1926.
The net bonded debt of Missouri is also shown on a per
capita basis in Table 18. From $0.05 in 1913, the per capita
net bonded debt of the state increased to $7.96 in 1923,
$14.57 in 1925, and $18.40 in 1927. At the end of 1928 the
per capita net bonded debt was $17.98. In Chart 2 the per
capita net bonded debt is graphically presented for the years
1913, 1918, and 1923 to 1928.
In interpreting fiscal statistics it is important to compare
the data for other similar governmental divisions in order
that the relative position of the government under con-
sideration may be determined. For this reason data for
the net bonded debt of 11 other states are included in
Table 18. This table shows that at the end of the fiscal
year 1928 the net bonded debt of Missouri was exceeded by
t Computed from data in Financial Statistics of States, 1922, published by the
United States Bureau of the Census.
