Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1931-04-16
Minnesota Legislature
Weekly Review by
HJALMAR PETERSEN
Representative From Pine County
april 9Th to 11th)

The House on Monday voted to cut
down the maximum amount that town.
ships are to contribute for the con-
struction of county aid roads. The
law has been that county commits
sioners could ask townships to con-
tribute from 10 to 30 per cent of the
cost of county aid road and on
unanimous consent could eliminate
any cost to the township. The House
reduced this to maximum of 20 per
cent. Under the 10 to 80 per cent
contribution that the commissioners
could ask for, Pine county commits
sioners made it 20 per cent. 1t is
possible now that they will cut it to
Is per cent. However, that of course
is entirely up to the board.
The House passed another bill cut
ting down maximum weights of trucks
on highways, said bill being sponsored
by Representative Andrew Finstuen of
Kenyon.
House Votes Road Law Change.
A bill of considerable Importance to
on Monday. This concerns the distri-
button of the statewide one mill road
tax fund. For eighteen years the
law has read to the effect that no
county was to get over three per cent
of this fund and no county less than
one per cent. The one mill levy on
all general property of the state
creates a fund of approximately two
million dollars annually so one per
cent meant approximately 100000 to
Pine county each year. No county
received less. One per cent to each
of "a counties naturally made direct
distribution of "a per cent of the fund
Three per cent to each of Hennepin,
Ramsey and st. Louis counties made
the direct distribution SO per cent of
the total fund. However, few coun-
ties like Stearns, Blue Earth, and
others having a valuation of over
twenty million dollars, received a
little over one per cent, so actually
about 81 per cent of the entire fund
was distributed directly to the various
UOdI uS VI GUILTY COulIulSSlOuciS W US
used on state aid roads.
Under the new arrangement if the
bill also passes in the Senate and the
governor signs it, no counties will get
less than three-fourths of one per cent
and no counties over three per cent
of the entire fund, however all coun-
ties to get as much as they pay in
but with limit of 3 per cent. This
would make a direct distribution of
about 80 per cent of the two million
dollars, leaving 20 per cent or approx
mately 100000 to be distributed by
the State Highway Commission to
counties or localities in the state
needing extra funds. This would es-
pecially be helpful to the larger and
more sparsely settled counties with
many miles of roads, many bridges
to be built and the like of that.
Small Counties Have Fared Well.
Under the old arrangement counties
with fifteen or less townships received
just as much out of this state one
mill tax as for instance county like
Pine with its more than forty town.
ships. Through this socalled Dunn
road law many of the smaller coun-
ties in the state have practically COM
pleted their road programs and have
Jared we'll under it. Counties with
less than twenty million dollars as
sessed valuation will all be getting
approximately $4,000 annually in
stead of $4,000 as in the past, if the
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