The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-02-22
Facts and Figures
BY
FULLER WARREN
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The State Association of Coun-
ty Commissioners will urge the
l947 Legislature to divert the
seventh cent of the gasoline tax
to counties TO build county roads.
The Legislature should do this.
County roads are in a very bad
fix. Some of them, in wet wea-
Their, are impossible. Last spring,
a delegation of citizens from the
little community of Floral Bluff,
on the ST. Johns River in Duval
County, appeared before the Du-
val County Commissioners and
asked that some work be done
on the only road by which Floral
Bluff could be reached. Citizen
after citizen pointed out that
after a heavy rain it was abso-
lutely impossible for a 1car to
pass over the road. A lady said
her car was begged down on this
road for three hours few days
before. Several men said they
simply could not get to their jobs
in the city after a heavy rain.
The Floral Bluff citizens first
asked the commissioners to hard
surface the Doggy road. When
the commissioners explained that
there was no money for such pur-
pose, the citizens then asked that
some Stag be placed on the Doggy
places in the road. Again, the
commissioners explained that they
were without funds. The citizens
then asked for drainage of the
Doggy areas. The commissioners
had TO explain once more that
they had no money. 1t despera-
ton, the citizens asked that some
sand be hauled in and dumped on
the boggieSt places. With en-
barrassment. the commissioners
had TO tell them they didn't even
have enough money on hand for
that.
l don't doubt that hundreds of
rural communities in Florida are
in about the same fix as Floral |
Bluff. County commissioners
simply can't build and repair |
county roads even half adequate !
ly with the piddling funds that
are allowed them under present |
law. Each county gets only 20
per cent of what is left over, from /
its share of two cents of the gas !
tax allocated to counties, after /
each county has paid what it
owes on road and bridge district
bonds. In most counties, this 20 !
percent amounts to mighty little. !
The shabby condition of most
county roads shows just how lit
tie it is.
By turning the seventh cent Of
the gasoline tax over to the coun-
ties for county roads, about S.
100000 a year would be available
for rural roads. That would
build a lot of new farm-to-mar-
ket roads, and also fill up a lot
of bog holes in roads already
built.
County roads mean just as
much to people who have to use
them as state highways mean to
people who use them. And more
than one-third of the people of
Florida use rural roads. Of Flor
ida's 2,250,06l population in 1945,
a total of 8l3,635 lived in rural
areas, and presumably used coun-
ty roads more than they used
state highways. There is no val
id reason why at least one cent
of the gas tax should not be spent
on county roads that directly
benefit more than one of every
three people in Florida.
Furthermore, a diSproportion-
ate amount of gas tax money is
now spent on state highways as
against county roads. According
to the Division of Research and
Records, State Road Department,
there are approximately $4,000
miles of Florida roads outside the
limits of cities and towns. Of this
total, 5000 are now being admin
iStered by the State Road De-
partment. Thus, there are more
than four miles of county roads
for every mile of state highway.
The State Road Department
gets four cents of the gas tax
approximately S20,000,000 a year
to build and maintain $500
miles of state highways. II GER
tainly seems fair and reasonable
that the counties should get at