Evening star., 1932-03-16
BUREAU PROPOSES
NEW AUTO LEv|ES
-
Scheme Approves Higher Gas
Tax and Present Personal
81 Property Plan.

81 Property Plan.
tContinued From First Page.)
the estate tax, and urged that 1t be
rewritten along more equitable lines.
In today's report, the bureau COM
bined the bills dealing with increased
gas tax and weight tax, and later on
will submit report on the Mapes
final report will take up the bill in
volving the basic issue of fiscal rela-
tions, by which the House is seeking
TO repeal the substantive law which
established the 60-40 ratio of appor-
tioning the cost of maintaining the
National Capital.
Plans Treated Separately.
In these reports on the various tax
bills, the Efficiency Bureau Is taking
up each plan Of taxation separately
It Is presumed that the effect these
various tax increases would have on
the equitable apportionment of the
expenses of the National Capital Nill
be taken up later.
The plan Of creating a new highway
fund In the accounts of the District,
TO be financed directly out of motor
taxes plus Borland assessments, would,
If adopted have an important bearing
on the problem of fiscal relations, be-
cause it would relieve the United States
of sharing in the cost Of developing a
street system laid out on an unusual
scale to meet the requirements OF the
Federal City and constituting one Of
the chief items Of annual expense.
The bureau drew a distinction be-
tween highways in parks and those in
the city generally, reaching the con-
clusion that motorists should not be re-
quired to pay directly, through the new
highway fund, for the road work done
10 the parks.
S4,0o0,000 . Year Needed.
The bureau found that for the next
few years the amount required for street
work, half the cost Of bridges and the
expenses Of the Vehicle and Traffic
Department would be approximately
100000 year. The tax program
which the bureau recommended to the
Senate Committee would meet this
total requirement Of the new highway
fund as follows:
Motor fuel tax, cents a gallon,
$3,300,000; motor vehicle registration
fees dncluding weight levies on trucks,
$467, 900: motor vehicle operator per-
mits, 100000, and motor vehicle title
fees $4,000. These total S4,057 600.
Including the estimate Of an annual
average return of 100000 from Borland
law assessments, this total would be
$4,257,000," the bureau added with
estimated needs totaling $4,o00,o00 a
year, the surplus of $257 900 may be
considered a ga per cent reserve to
allow for the possibility of reduced COL
lections due to unforeseen contingen-
cies"
After outlining the scope of the pro-
posed new highway fund, Herbert d.
Brown, chief of the bureau, stated in
his letter Of transmittal to the Senate
committee:
This plan would place almost the
entire burden of street construction and
maintenance upon motor vehicle own
ers. and would relieve the general tax
payers Of the District Of any share of
this obligation. The cost of construct
ing and maintaining bridges would be
shared equally by the highway fund and
the general revenue"
Changes Are Proposed.
The remainder of Mr. Browns letter
Of transmittal outlines specific changes
in the wording of the Mapes motor
vehicle weight tax bill.
Although recommending retention of
the personal property tax on motor We
hicles. the bureau does not make this
revenue part of the separate highway
fund for street and traffic expenses, but
rcommends that the personal levy con-
ttnue to go into the general fund of
the District.
Since the Mapes bills made no provi-
sion for the separate highway fund
advocated by the bureau, the revenue
which would have resulted from the
Mapes weight tax would have gone into
the general revenues Of the District.
The present 2-cent gas tax already
Is kept as separate fund exclusively
for street and highway work and the
bureau used this as nucleus around
which to build its proposed new high
way fund.
Taking up the Mapes bill to double
the gas tax, the efficiency report quotes
the Bureau of Public Roads statistics
whole this tax ranges from cents
gallon In 4 States, to cents a gallon
in other States, with II States charg-
ing 4 cents, II States cents, States
cents, ! State 51z cents and 4 States
8 cents. This, the bureau said, gave
an average of .04l per gallon.
AGENT Levy Defended.
This indicates a tax of cents a
gallon would not be unduly burden
some. provided it did not yield reve-
nue. greatly in excess of the amount
chargeable to motor vehicle owners as
their share of the costs of highways
and related projects in the District of
Columbia.
In order to determine whether this
tax would yield such an excess, it is
necessary to estimate the receipts from
the Accent, motor fuel tax, from the
registration taxes proposed by H. r.
1924 (the weight taxi, from other
highway fund collections from motor
<ehicle owners and from real property
aAessments (Borland law to be cred
iteC to the highway fund"
Mter pointing out the present 2-cent
gas TAX amounted to 81 l64e, ,30278 for
the fScal year 1881, the bureau states:
Based On the actual experience of
the various States. the bureau estimates
that, with Accent tax, the increase in
the collection the first year would be at
least 100 per cent. An exact 100 per
cent increase would produce a total
motor fuel tax of $3,296, ,6o5.56, and, for
estimate purposes, $4,000, 900 has been
taken"
The report explains that the House
bill on weight tax contains rates that
vary according to the use, weight and
tire equipment of the vehicles. The
House schedule ranges from SO cents
per 100 pounds for private passenger
vehicles, equipped with pneumatic tires,
to IS per 100 pounds for trucks weigh
ing over $4,000 pounds and equipped
with metal tires.
Registration Tax Estimated.
To arrive at an estimate of the
revenue that would be collected from
registration taxes, based on the weight
schedule in the House bill, the Ef
fciency Bureau made q study of the
motor vehicle title records in the Traf-
fc Department and worked out table