The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-12-10
IOWA'S STREET PAVING LAW.

The Boone News demands reform
in the street paving law OF the state
that will relieve abutting property
from assessment and place the cost
of street improvement upon the gen
eral public. Such an effort would
violate the experience OF all cities
and states since the beginning OF
time for, wherever such a plan has
been followed, the politicians have
paved streets in their wards where
influence was the strongest and the
districts which stood ready to pay
for the street improvement for the
general advancement OF property
values were held back and retarded.
Even now in states that Improve
highways wholly at state expense the
same inequalities exist.
There is only one serious defcien-
cy in our paving law. All the rest
of it's imperfections lie mostly in its
administration. For instance the
glaring inequality which starts the
Boone News to demanding change is
the fact that the cost of street inter-
sections is sometimes assessed to the
nearby property. This is not in the
law but in it's application. Any prop
erty owner can stop it who can show
that the paving improvement has not
added value enough to his property
to equal the assessment and II ne
can't show this he has not been in
jured.
No assessment for paving can be
made under the present law which is
in excess of the actual benefit to the
property conferred by the street i'm
provement This applies to street in
tersections, paving on the long sides
of lots and even to the paving in
front of an inside lot if the increas-
ed value of the property does not
come up to the assessment. All the
rest must be paid from the general
fund of the city anyway. The law
was amended at the last session Of
the legislature so as to enable the
cost of paving to be assessed evenly
over all lots in the zone of special
benefit rather than upon the one lot
AUDITING but the old rule still APP
plies that the benefit must be there.
The change that might be made in
the Iowa paving law is one that
would make paving cheaper to buy
and vastly easier to pay for. AS it
is now property is assessed upon the
seven year plan, certificates being is
sued which are liens upon the prop
erty. The average paving contractor
does not have banking connections
which give him low rate of interest.
He must first discount his certifi-
Gates before he can bid. If the GER
tificates bear per cent the contrac-
tor usually sells them to some local
bank at 8 per cent and the extra 2
per cent is covered in the price of the
paving. The city could have borrow
ed the same money at per cent on
it's bonds Furthermore the average
city street pavement is good for 20
years and there is no sound reason
for collecting the bill from the prop
erty in seven years. If the city could
sell it's 4 per cent 20 year bonds fol
paving Improvements, the bonds ma.
turing serially the assessments upon
the property would be reduced from
seven payments at per cent inter.
est to 20 payments at 2 per cent in.
terest and there would not be sc
much complaint as to the cost OF
street paving. The easier becomes the
tax burden the more would streets
be improved by request of the prop
erty ers.-Marshalltown Times
Republican