Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-02-05
TO LIFT
lI!0!'K|Al|| ! A OUT OF MUD
New Road Bill Drafted JOip - by the
House and Senate ST.. ~
mittees Will Go Long No h.
y Towards Good Roads koa
FARMERS SHOULD NOT PIE
MADE PAY MOST OF COST
Pointed Out That the Motor Vehicle
Should Bear the Bulk Of the
Burden Of Cost

SnOul0 near the BULK OF the
Burden of Cost
The thirty-eighth general assembly
Is ready to begin its work upon Z
road bill which, drafted jointly by
house and stnate sub-eommittees,
will be calculated to go a long way
toward lifting Iowa out of the
mud"
Mr.. Macdonald state highway
engineer favored local road build
ing program which he estimated will
finance 400 miles Of Iowa paving
each year, entirely without resort to
general taxation.
Would Increase Auto Tax.
Iowa now raises by its motor
vehicle tax, he estimated, about
$2.7OO.0O0 a year, which is very fow
compared to some other states, mo-
tably Illinois. Mr.. Mac Donald would
have this tax increased, by some
equitable method, to the point where
1t produced about 100000 a year.
In addition to this, he estimated,
congress will soon have enacted
measures which will secure to Iowa
at least 81, 100000 of federal aid
each year.
The $6.OOO,0OO thus secured, he
believes should be distributed to the
counties about as af present and
. used by them to pay Is per cent Of
the cost of whatever paving IS done
on the 5000 miles or intercounty
roads in the state. TWENTY-FIVE per
cent OF the cost Of such. improve
ments, he believes, should be as
sessed to abutting and adjacent prop
erty. adding in these assessments,
Mr.. Mac Donald estimated iowa
should have a$S, 100000 a year for
hard road building which would con-
struct 400 miles q year at 100000
q mile, or about four miles to the
county. At this rate the entire in
ter-county system could be paved in
I15 years. ..t
Two Methods.
Under the proposed plan, counties
would have the option of two meth
DDS Of using this money. They could
use it only as it became available.
paving their four miles a year, or,
upon approval by popular vote. they
could lay out more extensive pro-
grams and issue bonds to pay for
them, retiring the bonds as their
motor vehicle and federal aid money
became available.
It was pointed out that in most
cases the IS per cent? aseAasmapt
against adjacent property for paving
would be only about mill per year.
This plan, Mr.. Macdonald sail.
leaves the way open for the cor
tinued Improvement and mainten-
Ance of the secondary road systems
county and township roads-at the
tame time paving is being d9ne. ba
cause 1t doGs not impair county road
revenues now raised by general tax
jfti0n.
Easy For Iowa.
Mr.. Mac Donald expressed the
opinion that Iowa will find 1t easier
TO finance its necessary road i'm.
provemeuts, than almost any other
state in the union. He answered
those who want to wait until tie
federal government is ready to come
out to Iowa and surface our roads
W us. by declaring that Iowa should
oppose such wholesale federal aid
rather than welcome 1t.
"Under such plan,'' he said
''Iowa would be paying for the i'm
provements of highways in such
states as Nevada, where they have
about one person to every square
mile of territory. Iowa can much
better to afford to finance her own
road work, than help the federal
government finance similar project
in more thinly settled states.
Mr.. Macdonald declared that Iowa
is much more nearly ready for gent
eral hard surfacing than is Illinois,
which has embarked on sixty mil
lion dollar statewide project. Iowa
has a much greater proportion OF
concrete bridges and eulverts, and
permanently graded and drained
highways, than has Illinois, he de-
clared
Formers Viewpoint q. X.
The highway engineer declare
that exhaustive state highway CON-
mission tests have demonstrated
that the farmer who objects to pay
ing the bulk Of the cost of road i'm