Cleveland County herald., 1921-01-20
News of the World
THE AUTO TAX.

ClOnS Wnlcn GOV. Mchdo maQe to the legislature was that one which sug- gested that the automobile tax be re- tained by the counties in which they are collected to be used for the pur- pose of building good roads.
 This is about the most reasonable and sensible proposition we have heard issued from the lips of any public man in recent years.
 It should commend itself to all right thinking people as being the just and proper method of expend- ing this automobile tax.
 In this manner each county would get just what it pays in and no more. As it stands now some of the coun- ties get the lions share of this tax, or else the major portion of it is eaten up in overhead.
 Brooks Norfleet of Marianna stat ed in a speech that 40 per cent of the road tax was eaten up in over head. Norfleet is the baby of the house, being only 21 years old; but verify he's chip off the old block, and has a wisdom far beyond his years.
 We feel that if this county had control of the several thousands of dollars which are paid into the treas ury each year in automobile taxes we would come nearer expending ev- cry dollar of it on the roads and we would have a great deal more to spend on the roads than is now avail able.
 There is just one place where we take issue with Gov. MeRae. He suggests a state highway engineer. It would be better, in our opinion, for each county to have an engineer, one who would be on the job all the time, experimenting the construct ton of highways and seeing that they are built according to specifi- cations.
 A state highway engineer could not act except in an advisory ca pacity and it would be necessary for the county to employ an engineer anyhow, so what would be the value of a state highway engineer?
 We feel that if the way is clear to get the money, that by the as- sistance of a competent engineer we could manage to build just as good roads and build them cheaper with out the aid of an engineer located in Little Rock.
 Why should the state have any supervision over the roads we build in this county, as long as we pay the freight?
 Give us this automobile tax, sup plemented by the road tax which we already have and it will not be neces- sary to have any supervision by a state highway department or state highway engineer to have good roads.
 Let the county be divided into three or four districts and a com missioner elected to represent each district, drawing per diem and mile age for his services, with the county judge as ex-officio chairman. Then let this commission be empowered to employ competent engineer to have supervision over the highways, to lay out grades for proper drain- age and to draw up plans and specl- fications for all hard surfaced roads which may be built. In this manner we would have a great deal better dirt roads than we have at present. The average road commissioner usu- ally doesn't know thing about drainage, and the result is that we have tolerably good dirt roads when the weather has been good for a pro- tracted spell, and we have awfully bad roads when the weather is bad.
 We sincerely hope that the legis- lature will take heed of Gov. Me- Rae's suggestion to give each county it's automobile tax.