New Britain herald., 1916-07-08
SIXTEEN MILLIONS
 FOR COUNTRY ROADS
90 Per Cent. Of Auto Fees Go for
 That Purpose

1 per cent. of the registration and H- | cense lees paid in 1915 by automo- l blllsts to the states, or $16,213,3S7 1 was spent for the building and main l tenance of county and state roads, &C., ] cording to a compilation just pub lished by the office of public roads, l U. $. department of agriculture. In all, Z, 446,664 motor vehicles were reg istered in that year and their owners
 paid a total of s1S,245,713 for regis tration and drivers and dealers li- censes. This is an increase of $5,863,-
 76O over 1914, and an increase of
 794,325 in the number of vehicles reg
 istered. Automobile fees now defray nearly seven per cent. of the total amount spent on rural road and
 bridge building, whereas in 1906 the income from this source was less than three-tenths of one per cent. of the total expenditure
 The growth of the volume of fees and registrations is noted by the fact that in 1901 New York, the first state to require fees collected only s954. In 1906 only 48,000 cars were regis tered throughout the entire United States. By 1915, however, the num- Der had Jumped to the figure given, so that there is slightly more than
 one motor car registered for each of the 2,375,000 miles of road outside
 of the incorporated towns and cities
 One Car For Six Miles in Places. The relation between cars and road l mileage varies widely in different sec
 tions. There is only one motor car for every miles of rural road in Me- vada, but nearly six motor cars for every mile of such road in New Jer- sey. There is an average of one mo- tor car registration for every forty four persons in the United States Iowa apparently leads, however, with
 one motor car for every sixteen per sons, while only one for every 200 persons is registered for Alabama
 It must be understood however,
 that the figures of registration do not necessarily represent a total number of cars, as some of the state do not require annual registration, oth CTS group pleasure and commercial cars and motorcycles in their accounts
 while still other states do not require registration of motorcycles.
 Inequality in Fees.
 There is great inequality in the registration fees charged by the diff ferent states The average for the United States was $7.46. The state of Vermont, however, secured in 1915 a gross revenue of $1S.10 for each mo- tor car while Minnesota received only about fifty cents annually for each car In Texas and South Carolina no annual registration fees are collected, the only requirement being a county fee of fifty cents and $1 respectively for perennial registration. Most of the states, however, also levy annual taxes on motor vehicles and this adds importantly to the public revenue contributed by the owners of motor propelled vehicles.
 In the use of fees, however, there seems to be a general policy of apply ing the major part of the money col lected from automobilists directly to road betterment. In forty-two of the states of the union all or the major portion of the motor-vehicle revenue must be expended for the construc- ton, improvement. or maintenance of the public roads, or for the main tenance of the state highway depart ment. In twenty states, all or the major portion of the net motor vehicle revenues are expended by or under the supervision or direction of the state highway department. In seven states One-half to OnefOurth
 of the state motOr-vehicle revenues are expended through the state high way department, and the remainder by the local authorities. Many states, in addition to applying license fees to road construction expend for this pur- pose a large part of the fines and pen alties collected from owners.
 California Leads in Fees Collected. In the number of registrations New York state led in 1915 with 255, PAP; Illinois was second with 180,832; California third with 163,797; and Pennsylvania fourth with 16O,1 ,137. In gross revenues received from this source, however, California led with s2,027,432; New York was second
 with $1,991,1S1; Pennsylvania third with S1,665,276; while Iowa, with 145,OOO cars registered, came fourth in point of revenue with $1,533,054.