Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-08-05
GAS TAX WORKING FINE
Over Million and a Quarter
Taken In Under New Gas
Tax Law.

Over q million ana a quarter uOl-
lars has now been collected under
Wisconsin's new Gasoline Tax Law.
Figures made public by state treas
urer Solomon Levitan today show
that collections for the month OF
June to date total S466,884.73
bringing the grand total up to ST.
258,052.15. It is expected the re-
turns still to come in will swell
June collections we'll over the half
million mark.
Wisconsin's gas tax is operating
smoothly and is bringing in to the
treasury for the construction and
maintenance of our splendid sys-
TEN of state highways nearly a
half million dollars month. But
few people realize perhaps the stu
pendous amount of work that was
necessary in order to organize the
administrative machinery for the
collection Of this tax.
When Governor Blaine affixed his
signature to the bill and made it a
law Wisconsin people congratulated
each other and sat back to watch
it work.
But as yet there were no wheels
to turn. The law was on the books,
it was true, but there still re-
NAMED the big task for someone to
devise the machinery with which to
out the law.
That task fell to "Old Uncle So"
watch dog of the states treasury.
And "Sol" didn't waste any time
scratching his gray head for he
was ready. For weeks and months
the treasury department under his
direction had been studying the adj
ministrative machinery used by
other states in the collection of las
taxes and "Sol" had his plans well
laid.
His first step was to call a con-
ference of gas dealers of the state
at Madison. Over 200 dealers re-
presenting the principle oil COM
panies in the state attended and
the plans for administering the
new law were gone over in detail.
Il have called this conference to
ask your cooperation in the admin
istration of this new law" Uncle
Sol told the dealers. 81 don't want
to force our particular plans for
the collection of this tax down
your Threats. Force seldom gets
results. Instead | want to work
with you in an attempt to find the
best, fairest and most practical
way to collect the tax. want your
suggestions and cooperation"
The dealers had many good re-
Communications and together they
worked them into the administra-
tive plan that has been devised.
At the very outset it was discov-
cred at this conference that there
was a loophole in the Wisconsin
law which would have caused the
loss of large sum of money to the
state through the failure of the
law to apply to the millions Of gal
Ions of gas on hand when the law
was to go into effect. The legisla-
ture at once changed the law so as
to remedy this flaw. Then with
the new Gas Tax Law made "oil
tight" the treasury department
went ahead with it's plans, and
waded into the mountain of work
that was ahead of it.
First of all it was necessary in
accordance with the law, as it had
been changed, to determine the
amount of gas on hand in the state
on April / when the law went into
effect. To find this out it was
necessary to get in touch with
every gasoline dealer in the state,
from the big distributing compan-
les to the smallest little roadside
dealer. The oil inspectors office
it is true had lists of wholesalers
and all dealers who bought gas in
carload lots but there were no lists
OF the thousands of smaller dealers
throughout the state who distrib-
uted the gas after it had been in
spected. The treasury department
searched frantically every where,
picking up lists from every source
available. The wholesale firms were
called on for their lists of custom
ers, every other possible source was
tapped. In the end list of 1000
gas dealers was compiled.