State Fair exhibit, general view, Fiscal Supervisor of State REPORT. To the Legislature: Section 42 of the State Charities Law, as amended by chapter 149 of the Laws of 1909, provides that the Fiscal Supervisor shall "annually report to the Legislature his acts and proceedings for the year ending September thirtieth last preceding, with such facts in regard to the condition of the buildings, grounds and property, and the financial management of the state institutions reporting to him as he may deem necessary for the information of the legislature, The following institutions are under the jurisdiction of this Department: Western House of Refuge for Women, Albion. New York State School for the Blind, Batavia. New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, Bath. New York State Training School for Girls, Hudson. Eastern New York Reformatory, Napanoch. New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women, Newark. New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home, Oxford. New York House of Refuge, Randall's Island. New York State Hospital for the Treatment of Incipient Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Ray Brook. Rome State Custodial Asylum, Rome. Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea. Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, Syra cuse. Letchworth Village, Thiells. New York State Hospital for the Care of Crippled and Deformed Children, West Haverstraw. During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1910, the institutions reporting to the Fiscal Supervisor cared for an average total population of 9,793.74, as compared with an average total population of 10,144.81 for the preceding year- a decrease of 351.07. The total net cost of maintenance was $1,907,388.81, exclusive of Letchworth Village, which did not receive any patients during the fiscal year, and which had a maintenance expenditure, including the salary of the superintendent and the expenses of managers, amounting to $2,452.94. The above figures include an expenditure of $57,874.00 for coal purchased under a special bill, the purpose of which was to save paying the advancing scale on graded sizes of hard coal by laying in the year's supply in April. At the close of the fiscal year the institutions estimated that they had on hand coal to the value of $39,752.60, purchased out of this appropriation. The total net expenditure for maintenance, exclusive of coal, amounted to $1,849,513.82, and the net per capita cost of maintenance exclusive of coal purchased under chapter 17, Laws of 1910, was $188.85 as compared with $177.53. The increases in the expenditure for the year were salaries and wages, expenses of managers, provisions, household stores, clothing, fuel and light, hospital and medical, and shop, farm and garden supplies. The expenditure for salaries and wages shows an increase of $24,121.75. As a result of a change made in the method of reappropriating receipts from industries by which these funds are appropriated for maintenance rather than for the maintenance of the industries, an apparent increase in the cost of maintenance resulted. At the four institutions affected, namely, the New York State School for the Blind at Batavia, the New York State Reformatory at Elmira, the Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea, and the Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, the apparent increase in the cost of maintenance, traceable to industries, amounted to $38,000, which, with the increased expenditure for salaries and wages of $24,121.75, accounts for $62,148.78 of the total increase in the net cost of maintenance, exclusive of coal, of $72,317.87, leaving $10,169.09, which is about one-half of one per cent of the total expenditure, which is more than accounted for in the increased expenditure for household stores and clothing. While the expenditures show an increase and the population shows a decrease, there was no opportunity for decreasing the force of employes in the various institutions. Practically the only item of expense that would be reduced by a small decrease in population would be provisions, clothing and transportation of inmates. Transportation of inmates does show a decrease and the fact that provisions and clothing do not show a decrease is accounted for by the increased cost of nearly everything that goes into the institutions. COMPARISON OF FOOD PRICES. The following tables show the quantity, average cost, and total cost for the two years, 1908-1909, and 1909-1910: There was an increase of 22 male employes and 13 female employes on the payrolls of the institutions reporting to this Department during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1910. |