Morris tribune., 1920-07-30
THOUSANDS HEAR ABLE :
DEBATE ON ROAD PLAN
Henry Ronnng for the Negative Contends
cient Garry Out the Plan That Will Take Years.
Federal Aid May It Will Increase Taxes

the closing words of that old story
of the Deacon and His Daughter.
After the daughter had stated GER
tain proposition to her old father;
he shook his head and said, ''My
Child, it can't be did"
"IT CAN'T BE DID"
Why do I say that it cannot be
done? Simply for the reason that
in the event of this amendment being
passed, the legislature will not have
the power to provide sufficient funds.
What is this amendment? 1t is
very short, in plain language and
there is no excuse for any voter not
reading it.
First: 1t creates trunk highway
system of 1000 miles to be located,
constructed, reconstructed and fore
ever maintained as public highways
by the state of Minnesota. This part
of the amendment is f-executory,
and if this amendment, passes, it
places upon the state of Minnesota,
the burden of constructing, main
tanning and improving these 1000
miles of highway. This is radical
change in our state constitution as
it has existed from the time Of it's
adoption in the year 1853, our con-
stitution has at all times prohibited
the state from being a party to carry
ing on any works of internal i'm
provement. The construction and
maintainence of roads has devolved
upon counties and townships. Under
this amendment, the counties or
townships would have no jurisdiction
whatever over any part of this trunk
system. Time will not permit me to
go into "details in stating the rea-
sons for my objections to this fea-
ture of the amendment, but you can
readily see that creating state
highway department with exclusive
control of this trunk highway sys-
tenn and taking these roads out of
the jurisdiction of the county and
town boards will entail large addi-
tional expense.
TWO FUNDS CREATED
The amendment also creates two
funds, one to be known as the trunk
highway fund and the other as the
trunk highway sinking fund. The
trunk highway fund shall be used
for constructing, maintaining and
improving these trunk roads. The
sinking fund shall be used only for
paying off the bonded indebtedness,
unless the money in the said sinking
fund exceeds the bonded indebted
ness, in which case the surplus can
be transferred into the trunk high
way fund.
The balance Of the amendment
simply gives the legislature power to
do certain things and relates mostly
to raising funds for this system.
have stated that the funds that
can be raised by the legislature will
not be sufficient. You must remem-
Der that the legislature is tied down
by constitutional provisions and can
not raise any funds for this system
except as are provided by, the con-
stitution. Now let us see what funds
the legislature can provide for each
year.
First: AS to the trunk highway
fund which is the fund out of which
the expenses of constructing, main
tanning and improving this system
must be paid. The amendment auth
orized the legislature to sell bonds
to the amount of 10 million dollars
year with a provision that at nc
time must the bonds outstanding ex-
ceed rs million dollars. By this plan
the state can raise the most money
as this will give about twice as much
during the first years at least, as
will be derived from the proposed
average tax of SIS on each automo,
| bile or truck. You cannot sell bonds
for 10 million dollars in any veal
and use any part Of the taxes or
automobiles for the construction Oh
maintainence of this trunk highway
system, and no part of the auto
sinking fund to the trunk highway
fund, unless there is sufficient money
left in the sinking fund to cover the
bonded Indebtedness. The table or
the inside cover of the pamphlet pre-,
pared and distributed by the Min,
nesota Highway Improvement Asso.
citation is entirely wrong in principle
and grossly violates this amendment
Look at this table. BY the yeal
1880, you have $16,500,000, in
bonds outstanding and only $412,00C
in the sinking fund. AS outlined in
this table, you have collected ovel
$57, 100000 from auto taxes in IL
years, and in place of keeping enough
of it in the sinking fund to cover