Askov American., 1941-03-20

OiSS PIOUdUly tdhlIlS more lille lIldIl
any others.
(Omitted from publication last issue
for lack of space.)
On Monday morning the Committee
on Public Domain discussed a pro-
posed bill materially changing the
1887 law pertaining to the classifi-
cation and sale of tax delinquent
lands. This new measure, or amend
ment, is designed by the Conserva-
tion department to start a longtime
reforestation program, and seeks to
set aside certain lands for this pur-
pose, free of trust to the taxing units.
In other words, the counties and
townships would no longer have any
control of the lands so set aside and
the state could go ahead with any
kind of reforestation or sport pro-
gram without the fear of the counties
later reclassifying the land as agri-
cultural.
While 1 realize that eventually
something like this will have to be
done to develop any kind of use
program of land that is absolutely
no good for farming, nevertheless 1
do not like the present proposed
measure. In the first place it does
not tie it up with Zoning, which is the
first step in a land use program, and
secondly it makes no provision for
the state to reimburse the counties
for the land in which the counties
and towns have about 80 per cent
interest in this land from the stand
point of unpaid taxes.
Correct Classification.
1 feel that the land has not yet
been correctly classified in that much
of it is considered, or classified, as
no good for farming because of debt
and high taxes rather than because
the land is poor. Let's get the land
correctly classified first, and this can
only be done by taking the debt situa-
ton into consideration. l think, and
believe most of you think, that it is
far more important to get people
back on good land, paying taxes, and
settling up the country, than it is
to set up playground for either the
sportsmen or the state departments.
A subcommittee has been ap-
pointed by myself, as chairman, and
will report back later.
The Dunn One Mill Tax.
Tuesday evening public hearing
was held on the bill proposing a re-
peal of the Dunn one-mill road and
bridge tax. There were people here
from far points of the state and all
argued in favor of the retention of
the one-mill tax while its repeal was
advocated largely by city men. How
ever, the authors of the repeal bill
feel that we cannot get the &c gas
tax unless we compromise on the one
mill, and although most of us will
continue to fight to keep both, we
may be compelled to compromise as
the gas tax means more to all rural
counties.
The iron ore tax interim commit
tee report is now out and already
creating waves of disturbance as the
committee, among other things, said
that the range communities were
spending too much money. Bills
have been introduced to carry out
the recommendations of the interim
committee and so the old battle that
RACES every session and is always
settled with a compromise, is on
again.
TaX-free Tractor Fuel.
The committee on Motor Vehicles
has recommended for passage bill
to allow the inshipment of low test
gas and crude oil, tax free, to be used
as a tractor fuel. This tax free fuel
will be colored blue, and anyone
caught using this color fuel in a
pleasure or other kind of vehicle
other than a farm tractor, will be
subject to heavy penalty. This
answers the request of many farm
ers for a low cost tractor fuel, al
though one farmer on the committee
said he would prefer to buy regular
gas for his tractor as long as he could
get a refund on the tax anyway
rather than have his tractor dam
aged by an inferior fuel.
Evening sessions will start about
March 20, according to Mr.. Dunn,
Chairman of rules. Over thousand
bills now introduced, possibly a
hundred passed this branch of the
legislature.
Have been getting quite a bit Of
cheat" on portions of the proposed
changes in school laws, and wish
those writing in would consider all
recommendations of the interim COM
mittee, particularly those applicable
to the district in which they live,
before picking on one of the recon-
mendations. AS whole, the interim
committee has made one of the finest
reports of this, or any other state,
ever seen, and although the laws to
carry out the recommendations per-
haps need adjusting in some par
ticulars, don't get all "hepped up"
about only one portion of it.