66 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI
to wealth of more than 19,. Of the remaining states, only
Illinois had a higher ratio than Missouri. Although the
debt of Missouri ranks third on this basis, the ratio is
actually very small, and Missouri has provided for the ser-
vicing of its debt obligations in a very capable manner.
More important than the amount of indebtedness or its
relation to other factors, such as population and wealth, is
the establishment of a sound financial plan for meeting in-
terest and principal payments as they come due. The State
of Missouri has made careful provision for such a plan and
has recognized the fact that only in that manner can its
credit standing be maintained.
Floating and Current Debt of Missouri and Other States
At the end of 1928 Missouri had outstanding current debt
obligations amounting to $318,596 and floating debt obli-
gations of almost $4.4 million. The latter amount consists
of school and seminary certificates and does not represent
an outstanding debt, as the certificates are held in trust by
the State Treasurer for the public school fund and the
seminary fund. This indebtedness is of a permanent nature,
the total having remained unchanged since 1902. Whenever
one of the certificates matures, it is cancelled by the Board of
Education, and a new certificate for like amount bearing the
same rate of interest is executed by the Governor.! The re-
quired renewal period is twenty years.
Since Missouri has had no floating debt obligations out-
standing in recent years, other than the semi-permanent
school and seminary certificates of indebtedness, which have
remained unchanged in amount, a consideration of the short-
term indebtedness of the state involves only the current
debt. The current debt as of the close of the year 1924
amounted to $460,783, which was larger than that for any
other year, as may be seen in Table 20. At the end of 1923
current debt amounted to only $2,120, and, as stated above,
it was only $318,596 at the end of 1928.
For purposes of comparison the floating debt and the
current debt of eleven other states are shown in Table 20.
Since in a number of states the floating debt, or part of it,
1R. 8, 1919, Sections 11594 and 11595,
