Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-09-17
THE new ROAD
LAW TANCLES
The Misunderstood Features of the
Road Law Told by Writer ard
Organizer i'm Cause of High
way Improvement
FEW POINTS ALWAYS
GETTING TWISTED
rObably the One That Causes Most
Apprehension is the Limit of
Special Assessments

What are the most misrepresent-
ed and misunderstood features of
the road law?" was the question put
at Joe Long, founder of the Blue
Grass road and for dozen years
well knownsas speaker AMI writer
and organizer in the cause of high
way impfoyemer t.
well, should say there were four
or five points that espe,ially persist
in getting twisted and Il. most OF
them there is ample opportunity for
trouble. Probably the one that caus-
es most apprehension is the limit OF
special assessments.
Most people have heard that it is
A per cent altho many ge. the per
cent of the cost of the pavement mix
ed up and they think 1t is % per
cent of the value of the property,
but fully one-half of the .Jaopie be-
lieve you can be assesse Il per cent
whenever you are caught III an as
sessment district Now tho law plain
ly says Under no circumstances
whether in one or more assessment
districts" can any land be assessed
in the aggregate more than / per
cent of its fair market value. IN
other words, $500 an acre land could
not be assessed more than sS IL you
built paved roads around It.
Second l should say comes the
utter confusion of ideas concerning
state and federal funds and the op-
tions OF the county. You see we have
no state aid in Iowa as in other
states. That is we do not go fifty-
fifty with the county on any WORK.
The state revenues from the motor
vehicle license go into the primary
road fund and Are allotted by agree.
ment with the federal authorities to
the counties. Federal aid is not al
lotted to counties by the federal
government but only to states. This
county and is not even deposited in
its name. The county has a book
credit for it only, until It uses it,
Des Moines county, as county, will
pay not one cent for the improve
ment on its primary road system,
the only taxes under the law con-
nected with that end being the in
terest in case you sometime decide
to anticipate the allotment by more
than one year. Then you must have
another vote and tax all the property
in the county to pay the interest. OF
course that question is not involved
in this election.
Third comes the argument
whether county does or does not
lose its share of the money If II
votes mo" Verasity is often openly
questioned on this matter and the
charge of Misrepresentation fire.
iquently made. There is no provision
in the acts of the last general as
sembly for redistribution of the
funds unused. Until such provision
is made the credit on the books will
stand. Some officials take the. posit-
ion that the redistribution proyids~
under the law of 1917 applies. do
not believe that it can possibly apply
to anything unless it be the funds
available before the passage of the
new law and / hardly think it ap-
plies there. OF course the next legis-
lature will probably act upon the
question of redistribution of funds
where counties will not accept them
on work approved by state and feder
al authorities.
Fourth, and in some parts of the
state this has been the most bitter ar
gument of all, comes the matter OF
: whether the fund may be used for
graveling the primary system instead
of paving. The counties that havs
, had graveled roads a long time, like
Greene, of Clay or Dickinson, voted
heavily for paving the nam arteries
because they have learned by exper'
ience that gravel will not carry this
extra heavy traffic. But in counties
where only few roads had recently
been grayeled the improvement had
been so great that many thought that
nothing better possibly could bt
built and therefore paving was &
waste of money. 1t was this senti
ment that caused the insertion in the
law of provision that tie primary
funds could be used for graveling i