Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-06-09
THE NEW ROAD LAW.

and repairing roads in any town in
this state shall be paid in money,
being radical departure from the
system so long in vogue, of paying
such taxes in labor, has caused much
disagreement throughout the state,
especially in regard to the time when
the provisions of the law became, or
become operative. AS will be seen by
the following opinion furnished by the
Attorney General, the law applies to
the present year; that is, the new law
took effect and was in force from and
after its passage and publication, in
April last; and as pointed out by the
Attorney General, assessments of road
taxes made prior to the passage of the
law are valid, inasmuch as the new
law provides that the manner of max
ing such assessments shall remain the
same as provided by section 1910 of
the revised statutes. The opinion of
the Attorney General in regard to the
law was called out by the following
questions addressed to him by a dis
trict attorney:
lin my county the town boards in
several of the towns had assessed the
town taxes and placed in the hands of
the overseers who were elected at the
last spring election tax warrants prior
to the publication of the new road law.
Some of the taxes have already been
worked out. Does the new law apply
to such cases? and if it does, will
those taxpayers who have already
worked out their taxes be obliged to
again pay them in money? Can you
suggest any way out of the diff
Guilty ?"
The reply of Attorney General
O'Connor clears up many disputed
points regarding the application of the
law 1t is as follows:
"Your letter of inquiry received.
Replying to the same, will say that
these questions propounded in respect
to the road law are not entirely free
from perplexity and are giving rise to
a great deal Of dispute Throughout the
state. 1t may be possible that the
controversy has arisen from a mis-
print which / have discovered in some
[ publication Of the law published by
newspapers otherwise than the official
publications of the laws. | came in
possession of copy of the road law in
which this error occurred and was for
some time misled myself. The error
existed in section 4, which read that
All taxes hereafter assessed, ETC.,
shall be paid in money" This act
went into effect on April 29, 1898,
| inasmuch as the taxes were actually
assessed at that time, or large por-
ton of them, it seemed that by the
provisions of the law itself it could
not apply this year. But the act
passed by the legislature and publish
ed in the official state paper reads as
follows. Section 4. Hereafter all
taxes assessed for making and repair
ing roads in any town in this state
shall be paid in money and collected
by the town treasurer at the same
time and in the same manner as other
taxes are collected in said town for
other town and county purposes" etc.
The transposing of the word "here-
AFTER" gave the section quite a differ
ent meaning, and when properly read
with other sections of the law, I am
inclined to think that the law must be
applied during the present year. The
town boards of the several towns may
under the first section appoint one or
more superintendent. They can, if
they desire, appoint the pathmasters
of the several road districts as the sup
erintendents. 1t must not be over
looked, however, that the appointment
continues for three years, unless the
superintendent is removed for cause.
By section of the new road law it
is provided, among other things, that
the town board may make and repair
roads in the town by hire or contract.
BY section 2 of said act the town
board is authorized to procure ma
chinery, implements, stone, gravel
and other material, and hire such
laborers and teams as are necessary
and proper for making and repairing
all roads.
| l think very much of the difficulty
with which town boards are contend
| ing under existing facts can be obvi-
ated by hiring the taxpayers and their
teams to the extent of the road tax
which they are required to pay. There
is certainly no legal objection to this,
as the town board is authorized to hire
such laborers and teams as they may
deem necessary and proper for making
the repairs, etc. By doing this they
would give the taxpayers of the sew
eral towns an opportunity to work out
their road taxes and at the same time
the board would fully complying with
the conditions and provisions of chap
ter 2o4, laws of 1898. The work must
be done not under the supervision of
overseers, who by this new road law
are in effect legislated out of the office
1t must be done under the direction of
superintendent or superintendent ap-
pointed by the board. For the pur-
pose of paying the laborers and teams
employed by the town in repairing the
roads the town board is authorized by
section 3 to borrow the money and
pledge the credit of the town to the
extent of four-ffths of the highway
taxes, and when the highway taxes are
| &hor bol first ho ann1iod IN