The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-11-27
FARMERS PROFIT
BY GOOD ROADS.
STATE PROGRAM SPREADING
BENEFITS TO USERS OF
COUNTY AND TOWN
SHIP ROUTES.

Everybody knows that good roads
mean lower automobile running ex-
pense-tire wear, gasoline and all
that-but how is the st. Louis
county farmer who runs his car OR
truck on town or county roao
benefited by the state trunk high
way or Babcock road program that
lakes his auto and gas taxes?
This question, asked many times,
was renewed by recent publication
of conservatively estimated savings
of Minnesota,s improved highways
this year and is answered in a cur
rent highway bulletin.
Getting down to the main ques-
ton, the bulletin states:
The farmer living on a town road,
if he owns an auto or truck, does
pay towards trunk highways, al
though he may use other roads most.
The majority of farmers, like city
people, pay minimum auto taxes,
$12 this year and SO next year.
The average tax on all motor veh-
icles is less than SIC. That is the
only tax on the machine, the Bah
cock plan having taken off the per-
sonal property tax which was about
the same amount. The 1925 gas
tax average IN Minnesota is less
than 81, trucks and buses included.
Auto and gas taxes combined are lit
tie more than the former personal
property tax and state license fee.
But the farmer pays between $40
and $25 of aato and gas taxes
toward trunk highway funds-if he
owns car.
The farmer living on a trunk high
way and using ID almost exclusively,
pays upwards of $50 a year in road
and bridge taxes on his land and
buildings. That is spent wholly on
local roads-not cent gong on the
man highways that serve him. He
contributes more than twice as much
toward local roads as the other
farmer pays in auto and gas taxes
toward his trunk highway.
Before the Babcock plan was
adopted, all state road aid and 81
out of every SIS of county road and
bridge tax funds was spent on the
main roadside trunk highways
now being improved and maintain
ed by the state with auto and gas
taxes and federal aid. The plan
leaves counties with five times as
much money as before to spend on
the roads still in their charge. So
| it should be plain that betterments
on local roads are being made five
times as fast and in volume five
times as big under the new plan
and farmers are benefting accord
ingly, notably those on county ana
town roads.
State trunk routes are the main,
most-traveled roads in all parts of
Minnesota. Mile for mile, there are
more sets of farm buildings and
more mail boxes on them than along
county and town roads and they
serve larger numbers of farmers
than the others. They are country
roads in every sense and even more
so than other roads for they are
the most used routes to the largest
number OF market places. Not a
mile of trunk highway extends in
side the three largest cities and only
small percentage of the 7,000-mile
system is within the small cities and
villages.
State highways are being improved
and maintained entirely with fedora.
alu, motor yenacIe taxes, ana, since
May 1925, with receipts from the g
cent gas tax. More than half of
these taxes are paid by car and
truck owners in cities and villages.
Yet the money is virtually all usea
on country roads.
City taxpayers began contributing
toward country road improvement in
Minnesota under the state road aid
plan and are now furnishing great
er amounts for that purpose under
the Babcock good ROADS plan. This
big part of the mileages their cars
are driven is on these rural high
ways, however. and approaching
good ROADS savings on car running
expense, they are rarely heard to
complain.