The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1911-02-14
The Grind in the Legislature

papers began a war on the bipartisan
combine and the senators began hear
ing from home on the subject Senator
CRUDE called the bill up for passage
again the other day. 1t was evident at
once that sentiment in the senate had
changed.
An amendment was adopted which
put the bill back into practically It's
original form. The members of the BIZ
partisan combine fought the bill again,
but their fight was not of the ferocious
nature of their first fight. The result
was that this time the bill passed tn.
senate by vote of 33 to IA. This time
Senator Gavit not only voted for the
bin but he fought hard to make it a
good bill and to keep 1t as nearly as
possible in its original form. He made
. complete change of front on the mat
ter, and on the last vote he announced
that he was an earnest advocate of the
referendum idea and that he wanted to
see the bill go through in good form.
He said IL was measure in the in
terest of the people, and that he knew
1t would meet with the APPROVAL of the
people Of Lake county Fleming also
voted 'o~ the bill
Whether the bipartisan combine will
be able to gather its remnants together
and exert any influence during the re-
mainder of the session is a question
hut it is believed that the sway or me
corporations in the senate is broken.
Senator Hibberd. of st. Joseph county,
/ is after the county Assessors of the
state. He introduced a bill in the
senate to abolish the office of county
| assessor, basing his argument on the
| bo he
less if the bill now before the legisla-
ture passed to authorize the state tax
board to direct the work of uncovering
property that has been hidden from
taxation. The latter bill would allow
the state tax board to employ tax
ferrets. but the work would be done
under the eye of the board and the
ferrets would not be able to make the
kind of outrageous contracts with
boards of county commissioners that
have been made in some of the coun-
ties in the past
Good roads legislation this year will
probably be confined to the passage OF
one bill regulating the collection OF
lroad taxes. number of road bills
have been introduced. Some Of them
related to road taxes while others pro-
sposed to create a state highway COM
mission. Senator Fleming introduced
one of the latter But the state high
way commission idea will not get very
far.
But in the house the committee or
roads has taken all of the bills and
boiled them into bill. which will
contain the best features of all of them
This bill, which has been introduced
with the sanction of the committee
/; provides that all road taxes above SCI
/. shall be paid in cash. 1t also provides
that each township shall be divided into
two districts and that there shall be
road supervisor. appointed by the town.
, ship-trustee, for each district.
, 1t is argued that this will give tbs
townships more money for use in road
. worn. and that 1t will result in better
work being done than under the ole
system under which the railroads ant
other big corporations let their roas
taxes out by contact and the contrac
tors did the work. 1t is said that IL
lmany cases the work done on the road
does not represent more than 20 to g.
percent of the total amount OF the rail
. roads road tax.
: This bill will probably pass boil
houses and become a law. If it doe
III will mean important step forwar,
in the state road laws. even IL the stat
highway commission bill fails to ge
through.