Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1922-10-04
IOv .AUTOS MORE
HAN 100000
Viii Have a Record Number
Operation by the End of the
Year, Total Going Be-
yond the 100000
Mark.
AGITATION IN FAVOR OF
REDUCED LICENSES
Heavy Tax Paid Into County and
State Treasures by Auto
Owners. Present Distri-
button Method
Unfair.

Des Moines, Iowa-Iowa will have
more than half million automobiles
before the end of this year.
The total registrations up to Sept.
/, were 1886, including trucks and
motorcycles. The total will easily
go beyond the 100000 mark, state
officials declare, and the total license
fees for this year will exceed SS,-
000,000.00.
This means an average of more
than $4,000 per county paid by. auto
owners this year in license fees. The
counties with the larger cities where
there are the most autos, have of
course collected far more than $780,
900, while the smaller counties have
not collected as much as that. Hew-
ever, the money is apportioned In
accordance with the area of the
county and not the amount paid in
by that county.
1t further more shows an invest
ment of more than a quarter of a
billion dollars in automobiles, figur-
ing the average value of $500 per au-
tomobile on the part of the 2,500,0OO
citizens of the state, or approximate
ly 500 for every man, woman and
child in the state.
1t means one machine for every
five residents of the state. If all of
the cars could carry five passengers
or an average of five, every man.,
woman, child and baby in the state
could go riding at the same time.
Fees too High
There is already more or less agi-
tation about the state for reduction
in the amount of license fees per
car, and without doubt legislation
will be proposed this winter to re-
duce the fee. In fact Secretary OF
State Walter Ramsay, in charge Of
the state automobile department, may
himself advocate a reduction in fees.
The fees were fixed at this high
figure by the Legislature when It
passeu rfie state- ...ss a-ti,er~
automobile law as companion mea-
sure, in order to furnish funds for
road building. And there are many
WI will oppose any lowering in the
fees until the work of road building
throuout the state has attained the
completeness cont mplated when the
road law was passed-that is, the
paving of the primary roads.
Automobile owners in the scores of
counties where no paving has been
done continually raise the question
as to where the money goes which is
paid in by them for license fees, in
asmuch as but little is being spent,
apparently, on roads.
However, the state law provides
that this money stand to the credi.
of the county. In fact the counties
Lott hnln
the counties of smaller population or
smaller number of cars, since the
fees are distributed on the basis of
the area of the county and not on
the population or on the amount paid
in by the residents of the county.
Law Unfair
Kossuth county and Pottawattamie
county, with their large areas, get
the most automobile money for their
roads. Such counties have more road
mileage and the law was therefore
drawn with that in view rather than
the amount paid in by each county.
Furthermore, the average autoist
drives thru many counties many
times in a year and each county or
town receives the benefit thru cross
country travel of the paving or road
improvement work done in other
counties.
A county which is not improving
its roads has this money to draw on
when road improvement is under
taken which it has paid in and not
used.
However, there are comparatively
few counties that have not done a
great amount of grading and bridge
building von primary roads in the
past four years.
What sort of reception the agita-
ton for lower license fees will re-
ceive in the legislature is problema-
tical, but the odds seem to favor
a reduction. 1t can be shown that
,Iowans pay a larger license fee than
the residents of any other state.
Further it will be argued that much
Of this auto money lies idle in the
banks in counties which are not US
ing it.
1t will be remembered that the
last legislature, early in the session,
passed an amendment to the automo-
bile law providing for the depositing
of the fees due each county in the
banks Of that county rather than to
allow them to accumulate in the
larger banks of the state.