Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-10-31
AID FROM STATE
FOR BUILDING ROADS
Would Not Increase Taxes In
This County.
Judge Ciementson Explains Why Good
Roads Amendment Should be Voted
For Next Tuesday.

70 the constitution of the state rela-
tive to the building Of roads. which
will be submitted to the voters for
their consideration at next Tuesdays
election. it being at the bottom of
the official ballot, on the lower left
hand corner. and reads as follows !:
Proposed amendment to section 10, article VII
a the constitution relating to internal improve
nsent.-'ResoIved by the senate. the assem-
bly, concurring. That section 10. of article
VIII. of the constitution be amended by
adding at the end thereof he following:
Provided that the state may appropriate
money in the treasury or to be theI eater
raised by taxation for the construction or
improvement of public highways"
For the amendmentpro- YES NO
viding for state aid in
the construction or i'm IL IL
provement of public
highways.
The editor of the Fennimore Times.
who is also MEMBER of the assembly
from this district and candidate for
reelection to that Office, had taken
an attitude of hostility to the amend
ment. upon the claim that the tax
payers of the towns would be taxed to
put money into the state treasury
which would not be expended as
judiciously within the towns as the
same amount would by the town
officers, and that the amendment
should be defeated.
Judge Clementson, of this city,
points out the fallacy of the posi-
ton taken by this editor. and shows
that to the money devoted to the
state aid in roadmaking would not
come from the taxpayers at all.
but from the railroads and other
corporations.
Wisconsin is about the only state
in the union whose constitution now
prohibits aid by the state In the build
ing and improving of the highways.
The voters of the county should read
carefully what Judge Clementson has
written. before going to the polls to
vote on Tuesday next. His communi-
cation is as follows:
Lancaster, Wis,
October "a. 1908.
Hon Henry E. Roethe,
Fennimore, Wis.
Friend Roethe -
l was interested in what you had
to say in the last issue of the
Times" upon the proposed amend
nent of Section 10 OF Article VIII of
the constitution, which is to be
voted on at the coming election but
do not agree with your conclusion
that this proposed amendment should
be defeated. The section of the con
stitution in question prohibits the
state from engaging in internal i'm
provements, and this prohibition is
supposed to forbid the state from APP
plying any of its funds towards i'm
proving the highways in the state.
So rough town, like Marion. for in
stance, where highways are hard to
make and to keep in repair, is bound
without any assistance from the state,
TO keep its roads in reasonably safe
condition for everyone to travel.
Should not the state do something
towards helping to maintain the high
ways over which all of its inhabitants
have the right to pass? Certainly it
should. But, because of the pro-
hibition in Section 10 of Article VIII
of the constitution, it cannot do so.
Therefore, in order that it may, it
is proposed to amend Section 10 by
adding thereto this: provided. that
the state may appropriate money
in the treasury or to be thereafter
raised by taxation for the construc-
tiop or Improvement of public high
ways
You say in substance that the tax
payers of the town would be taxed
to put money in the state treasury
which would not be as judiciously ex
pended within the town as the same
amount would be by the town officers.
think we might safely leave to our
representatives in the Legislature the
regulation of the expenditure of any
money that might be raised by taxa
ton for building or improving high
WAYS. But it is altogether likely
that a county like Grant. which is
large and has multitude of high
ways, would receive more state aid
than the highway tax it would pay
into the state treasury. Of a state
tax levied for highway purposes Grant
county would pay less than 1-4O. while
Milwaukee county would pay about 1-6
of the whole.
But it is not likely that state tax