The provision of state-funded care for the state's mental patients, mandated by the state legislature in 1900 and introduced in 1904, had caused a significant expansion of the state budget (by more than $1 million, about 10% of the budget), without an accompanying increase in revenue. Guild, who inherited this funding problem from his predecessors, called unsuccessfully for increases in corporate taxes in a bid to close the gap, but was only able to secure the introduction of an inheritance tax. Guild would, after he left office, chair the founding meeting of the National Tax Association, and helped draft a model income tax law.