The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-03-01
Makes Address Before Joint;
Session of the Legislature
Opposes Bond Issue. Now.
ADVOCATES ADOPTION
OF BUDGET SYSTEM
Governor Says System Should
Be Paid for by Taxation Of
s5,ooo,ooo or s6,ooo,ooo.

Columbia. Feb. 25.--Gov. Cooper
tonight addressed the general, assem-
bly, in joint session on the subject Of
a system of permanent highways and
the budget system and urged The
passage of laws at this session Of the
legislature putting them into effect.
The address of the executive was lis
tened to attentively by the 1eglsla-
tors and was given liberal applause.
The governor said that he did not
believe in q bond issue for perH1a-
nent highways at this time; that IN
his opinion, the good roads SYSTEM
shcuid be paid for by taxation, which
should raise between s5,000,000 and
$4,000. 900. Every class Of property,
he alleged, should be equitably tax
ed according to the benefits it re-
ceives from a system Of permanent
highways. He advocated a special
license tax for motor driver vehicles,
a special graduated tax on property
abutt;ng the improved roads and a
general tax on all the property OF
the State. He was Of the opinion
that counties which had spent money
on permanent highways under the
general State scheme Of highways,
should he gwen credit for it.
Governor Cooper eloquently DEF
scr:hed the benefit which would be
derived by the people of the, State,
improving educational facilities,
bringing the church nearer the rural
population, drawing the farms and
country into closer inter-communica
ten. advancing the social status OF
the country folks and enhancing the
industrial Development Of South Car
DINA. =
IN a few short sentences the gov
erno11 sketched the advantages to be !.
cer;.ed by the State from the adop-
ton Of a budget system. This method
of governing appropriations, he said,
would give an intelligent idea Of ev-
cry cent of money expended by the
State, the counties, the towns and
the cities and the school districts.
Tn dealing with the problem OF
good roads Governor Cooper said in
part:
y do not believe we should delay
the actual construction of roads un-
til bond issue may be voted. doubt
If We could at this time judiciousiy
spend more than five or six million
dollars per annum for roads, and this
amount can be raised easily by taxa
ton. During one year of/the war we
Or contributed for war
purposes an aggregate Of about one
hundred million dollars, and no bank
have. come to my attention as
a result OF this wonderful generosity
and patriotism. Surely we can now
raise one-twentieth of this amount
annually until we have q thorough
system Of roads throughout the State.
"A controlling principle in the levy
II a tax should be to distribute the
burden in such way as to require
each class of property subject to the
tax 20 pay its just proportion. If any
particular class of property is to re-
ceive g special benefit from the ex-
penditure CT the tax money, it is
nothing more than reasonable that
such property pay proportionately
,,cre of the tax than does other prop
,rty
Applying this principle it seems to 1
ne that al motor driven vehicles
hould pay special road tax, since
he owners and operators Of these
'elaiclcs would receive a special ben
,1iJ. II is aiso true that all property
hut,in" on or adjacent to the high
vays to be improved would necessar-
y receive special benefit, so a
pec;al graduated tax should apply to
II sucl1 property. And finally, all
property and every individual would
eceive a general benefit from a
tatc road system. therefore gener-
i tax on all property should be lev
e.l. this general tax to apply, also,
c property classed as specially bene-
ted.
II any county has spent its funds
Z building permanent highways,
nd such highways are taken into
tate system. the county should be
iven credit for the present value of
he permanent improvements on
,pSc rI,,i:. in rho S:ota SvStar,