New Britain herald., 1930-07-30
Farmer Pays Disproportionate Tax And Runs Health Risk, Hamhn Says
 In Urging Rural Road Improvement
Poor Dirt Roads Place Heavy Additional Bur- dens On Rural Residents, kiwanians Hear - Pre- election Campaign Ur- der Way.

man George V, Hamlin, who as pres. 1dent of the New Britain Rural Road improvement Association, an auxil. lary of the Connecticut Rural Road improvement Association, spoke tc the klWanis club members at their weekly luncheon at noon today
 MT. Hamlin called attention to the Fact that this year sees the first or. fanlzed effort to create sentiment in HVor of rural road improvement flted many reasons why Connect. puts rural roads should be improv- Id.
 At the close of his address Pres ldent Hugh McKenna announced that the club agricultural committed consisting of Charles F. Robertson David Borthwick, s. F. Avery 4. G Hawker and Harry C. Billings would cooperate in the movement here.
 MT. Hamlin's address in part was as follows:
 Tt was in 1895 or somewhere near that date that Connecticut's s good road movement actually started.
 At that time, the Connecticut legislature appointed three headed highway commission and appro- priated s75,o00 per year. When a road was constructed, one-third came from the state treasury, one third from the county and one-third from the town in which the highway was located.
 Today the amount exceeds "s14,- 100000 annually, derived almost en- tirely from autoists' license fees, fines, gasoline tax, etc, except cer- tain amount from the federal gov 'ernment
 With the demand for better roads came special taxation, and with the development of the auto mobile, all automobile owners were taxed alike, rega rdless of how much they used the highways or the con- dition of the highways they trav- ersed.
 Substitute Bills Unsatisfactory
 At the present time, the trunk line highways connect all the large centers of population and lead to connecting lines in adjoining states Nothing has been done in Connecti- cut in reference tosimprovement of rural or third class roads.
 In l 925, bill for improvement Of rural roads was submitted to the general assembly which Aas reject ed. In 1927, a substitute bill which was not at all satisfactory to pro- ponents of rural road improvements was submitted in which the legisla- ture appropriated a million dollars perpetually to assist in building state aid roads. This did not meet the situation. In 1929. a substitute bill was passed but this made on appropriation.
 The motorists in Connecticut pay the same registration fees and the same gasoline tax per gallon, re- eardless of any other conditions.
 What becomes of this money? For long time here in Connecticut this vast amount of money has been spent in building main trunk line highways. Never has there been put forward a>concrete plan or proposed system whereby the rural dweller might have access to these trunk line highways. They have pad a large proportion of the expense Of building them, notwithstanding the fact that at certain periods it is i'm posslble for many of these folks to reach them, and difficult at all times for some.
 Less Benefit From Taxes
 l have said that the rural dwell CTS pay the same fees, taxes, etc. as the city dweler; well, they do and then some. They pay the same tax per gallon on gasoline, but do not get the same mileage per gal Ion. They pay the same registration fee but do not have the benefit of improved roads. They get less mile age on tires and shorter life of their cars; an average of about 50 per cent less than the city owned car and pay about cents per mile more to operate on unimproved roads.
 Perhaps 1t will be argued that the trunk line highway should have been built first. All right, they now are well taken care of; can there TOW be any good reason for refus- ing the dweller on rural roads some benefit from his tax money? We think not.
 So for the first time there is an organized movement having for it's object the improvement of rural roads and incidentally the granting of some justice to the rural dweller taxpayer who, if farmer, is the highest taxed person in the whole country. The farmer pays out of his income from 19 to 31 per cent in taxes. Now what is the average farmers income? It is low wage earned by the sweat of his brow.
 Compare this with the wages of the average city dweller for whom the rural dUellers have been build ing most of the good roads.
 Where the city dweller / owns property. invariably the rent from that property will more than pay its taxes. The farmer must pay his taxes out of his wages No one pays more taxes in proportion to his in- come than the farmer.
 They are of equal economic ad- vantage to the city dweller and the rural dweller. They provide a speed fer. more direct and more econom- ical method of transporting farm and garden products to the metro politan markets, and products of the metropolitan to convenient rail and water shipping points. All with greater saving to the consumer and more satisfactory return to the pro- ducer.
 Good Roads Good Business