The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1920-12-30
Tentative License Fee
Likely to be Decreased
Highway Commissioner Babcock De-
clares Proposed Prices Given out
Recently are Too High

st. Paul, Dec. 27.-Charles M
BaRcock, state highway commission.
er, urged Minnesota automobile own.
ers not to be hasty in making New
Years resolutions to dispose of thei1
cars, despite reports that 1921 state
) license fees will be high. Tentative
/ license fee schedules probably viii
be revised downward, he said, and
were submitted merely to furnish a
working basis. At the direction OF
Chairman Oscar Swenson of the
house committee, clerks today will
begin classifying cars now licensed
in Minnesota that the schedules may
be changed to produce an actual
average of $18 car, as proposed.
Commissioner Babcock received
resolutions from commercial and
other organizations, boards of coun-
ty commissioners and road building
authorities, indorsing the state high
way department.
The resolutions are addressed to
Governor-Elect J. A. o. Preus, Lieu
tenant Gove1nor-elect Louis L. Col
Inns, Speaker w. l. Nolan and mem
bers of the Legislature, and express
full confidence in Commissioner Bah
cocks ability to administer the new
road program and give complete sat-
isfaction.
The tentative automobile license
fee schedules, although lower than
the average in other states, Com
missioner Babcock said, probably
will be lowered and certainly will not
be as high as indicated by some re-
ports. They are placed high enough
to insure the expected revenue an
nually, and inasmuch as no accurate
figures were available on different
types Of cars now licensed in the
state, the revision will be down.
ward. b.,
The maximum schedule is based
on estimates that of the Minnesota
owned cars, 70 per cent are low-pric-
ed machines, 20 per cent are med
ium priced and the remaining 10 per
cent is divided equally between high
priced cars and trucks. If these per-
centages are borne out by the actual
count, it was explained, the fees on
low-priced cars probably will ap-
proximate SIS a year.
Tentative schedule fees, previously
made public, are applied to popular
makes of cars as follows:
Car Weight Price New Average
Ford :. ..1,4SO $50 $16.25 $13.75
Dodge -. 1850 1885 $3.50 5000
Studebaker ...... ......... 49,.
:. LIT 6, 240O 14SO 39.40 $500
Buick :. 1850 1894 45.70 36.75
Franklin 2445 1900 5000 37.00
Hudson :. 1850 24OO $500 54.OO
Detroit Elec 5000 1000 $500 62.0O
Cadillac :. 1920 3940 165.00 $500
Packard -. Alta 5000 1900 10000
Weight and value from. the fee
basis, it was explained, because the
variance between low and high-pric-
ed cars is slight in many instances,
and works inequalities.
The tentative schedule is about on
parity with those in other states
except that unlike owners in other
states, those in Minnesota are ex-
empt from personal property taxes
on their machines. Iowa, for example
collects fees at the rates of l per
cent of the valuation, plus 40 cents
for each 100 pounds and the regular
personal property tax in addition.
Wisconsin has a fiat fee OF SlO a
car plus personal property taxes, but
issues general bonds to build roads,
Illinois and Ohio fees are So on cars
of twenty-five horse power; SlZ on
thirty-five horse power; $40 on flfty
horse power and S25 on machines OF
fifty or higher horse power, all IN
addition to personal property taxes
and levies ~for road purposes.
Other horse power bases are used
in various states, notably Vermont
with 81 a horse power and California
and Pennsylvania with the minimum
of 40 cents a horse power.