Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-03-02
How TO PAY
FOR OUR ROADS

taxation for the building and main
tenance Of main automobile roads
and is so clear an exposition of the
problem and the proposed adjustment
of the matter that we reproduce ii
| here, in part. The Wood County
Board of Supervisors acted upon a
resolution covering this point at its
last session, and many others have
done the same. Governor Blaine of
this state is said to favor a gasoline
tax as a solution of the problem.
The article reads in part as follows
at was just twenty years ago, in
July, 1901 Two farm neighbors were
leaning against the fence dividing
their farms and talking over matters.
On the road traffic was passing-all
horse-drawn vehicles. AS the trav-
elers passed by the farmers greeted
nearly everyone of them: Hello,
Bill" "Hello, John" "How are you,
Gus!" They knew practically every
one of them. They were neighbors
for the most part, living in the same
township. Others lived in nearby
towns. Rarely would a stranger go
by on the road, and when one did the
fact was commented on and they won
dered who he was and where he was
going.
'They were neighbors, all of them,
using the road running by their
farms. They were residents or tax
payers IN the same township or coun-
ty. 1t was they who built and used
the road, it was they who wore it out
and naturally it was they who paid
for it. And they were willing to pay
for it because it was they VINO derived
practically all the benefit from it. The
road tax was paid out of a general tax
on their farms. Not one of these
farmers and neighbors of twenty
years ago thought that the fellow in
the city or another part of the state
ought to pay part of their road tax,
because they knew it was they, not
the stranger, who used the road The
road was their road, they got the adj
vantage of its use, and they were Will
ling to pay for it.
1T was at the same spot in July,
1921. The two farmers leaned on the
same fence by the side of the road
Cd n 70, toll
things. They were older men now and
more serious minded, and more given
to elaboration. Traffic on that coun-
try road had become heavy, for as
they stood there vehicle after vehicle
sped by them. 1t was wholly new
type of vehicle from that which had
passed them twenty years before.
Rarely would they see horse-drawn
vehicle, except now and then farm
wagon. They were all motor vehicles
whirling by and leaving a cloud of
dust behind them. Occasionally mo-
tor truck Numbered by. AS the two
farmers stood there, watching the
road it was only rarely that they
spoke to anyone, for it was only now
and then that they recognized pass
ing neighbor. The people who drove
by were strangers as rule, and al
though a considerable number pos
sibly were from the same county, a
very large number were total stran-
gers to the community.
4'The road which twenty years be-
fore had been community road used
almost entirely by neighbors, was now
state road-and to a certain degree
an interstate road, fact to which
many vehicles with strange license
plates attested. The road, put to the
test of carrying more than mere loo
al traffic, was rapidly wearing out.
''The two farmers remained quiet
for a while, thinking. Finally, one
| of them said to the other: "Do you
| think it right that we farmers through
taxes on our farms should be paying
most of the taxes for this road when
such a large part of it is used by
strangers from other sections? And
then there are the motor trucks which
are owned in the cities"
"And his neighbor replied: s'The
man who benefits ought to pay. 1t
isn't like it was twenty years ago when
we neighbors used the road and were
willing to pay all of the road tax.
Today everybody is using the road,
and the road users, these everybodies
should pay for it. There should be
law to that effect
"The above visualizes in an indiv-
idual way what is happening through
out America. A road today is not a
neighborhood medium of traffic-it is
a state and often a national medium
The land owners adjacent to the roao
feel that they should not pay the
bulk of the tax, that the larger part
should be paid by the man who uses
the road. That is the tendency anC
trend throughout the country. AL
Iready it is beginning to manifest it
self Fifteen states have already a
dopted the gasoline tax to pay fol
road improvement; already number
of states, including Minnesota and IL
linois, have adopted system of meet
| ing bond issues out of tax on motor