70 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI
more recent years have ceased to be significant as a debt
function.
The funded and floating debt of the state at the end of
1928 amounted to $70.1 million, more than 93% of which
was incurred for highways and soldiers’ and sailors’ relief
and homes. The high percentage of state indebtedness
attributable to these two functions is explained by the fact
that the constitutional restrictions on indebtedness are
severe, and it follows that large amounts of indebtedness
could be incurred only for such purposes as were specifically
mentioned in constitutional amendments. These amend-
ments, as has been stated, provided for the incurring of in-
debtedness only for the two functions mentioned. As the
bonds issued in 1929 and 1930" have been exclusively for
highway purposes, it is probable that considerably more than
709, of Missouri's present bonded and floating debt is
attributable to the highway function.
Locar NeT BoNDED INDEBTEDNESS
The net bonded debt of the local governments is estimated
as $153,041,000 for 1928, as compared with $65,278,000 for
1922. Local net bonded indebtedness, therefore, increased
more than 130%, during the six-year period. Table 23 shows
that the per capita local net bonded debt in 1928 was $42.70,
and that the ratio of local net bonded debt to wealth was
1.36%.
Because of the manner in which the data used in estimat-
ing total local net bonded debt are compiled, it is not possible
to present separate net bonded debt figures for counties,
cities, school districts, and so on. However, accurate
compilations of the indebtedness of all cities over 30,000
are made by the United States Bureau of the Census, and
Table 22 shows the net bonded debt of the four cities® in
Missouri that are in this class. According to this table, the
net bonded indebtedness of the four cities amounted to
1 The bonds issued in these years were part of the $75 million issue approved
November 6, 1928.
2 Computed from data published by the United States Bureau of the Census in
Public Debt, 1922, and Financial Statistics of Cities, 1922.
3 Including school and other special districts within the cities.
