The people's voice., 1959-04-17
Continued From Page Three)

er miles OF good roads, bypassing of
Montana by Out-of-state truckers
would shift the burden of highway
costs to the automobile owner. Here
again the "IittIe man" would get
hurt the most. The s9litt1e man" In
the small town would get hurt even
more, as 3S percent of the small towns
i'm Montana depend solely motor
carrier transportation.
Schotte:
In number five. you refer to the
possible loss of one million dollars
in fuel tax revenue. If Montana were
to lose one million dollars a year in
fuel revenue, this would mean that
So out of every So now paid in fuel
revenue by vehicles of over $4,000
pounds would be lost. 1t is unreason-
able to assume that all such vehicles
would leave the Montana highways
over this relatively small increase in
total operating costs. Trucks go where
there is freight to be hauled, and a
small increase in cost does not deter
their movement. | am not familiar
with the North Dakota legislation to
which you refer, however. I under
stand that there has been no official
review of the North Dakota results
from their last tax change.
In 1852, the people of Oregon were
asked to vote on this type of legisla-
ton and even though the wording of
the ballot was heavily weighted in
favor of eliminating the weight-dis-
tance tax, the people very definitely
voted for the tax and needless to say,
the campaign against the tax was
expertly directed with almost limit
less finances.
The Fact Finding Committee de-
veloped the fact that the cost of
building roads for big trucks in
Montana is now carried to sub
stantial degree by passenger car
owners.
The rates proposed in the Montana
weight tax are developed to
recover these special costs associated
with constructing highways to be
used by heavy vehicles. This was done
by the development of an incremental
analysis and the rates are probably
the lowest defensible rates since they
are based on cost incurred in behalf
Fact Finding Committee on Page Sd,
SCdCou. AHIS Is pIoOdOly CHe loWeSC
defensible rate. There is nothing to
say that higher rates, reflecting bene-
fits beyond costs incurred, should not
be levied if legislative policy should
so direct. A higher rate schedule
would be effected by ton-mile allo-
cation-a procedure used by several
states in determining user response |
bilities. A ton mile ALLEGATION was dis |
cussed in Chapter 5, and compared |
with the incremental ALLEGATION if the |
rates on that attached schedule ap-
pear too low to satisfy legislative in
bent. they could be scaled upward |
toward the ton mile ALLEGATION rate
Perhaps compromise be-
tween the two, incremental analysis |
as the lowest and ton mile as the
highest, would be in order"
The engineering report of Montana
prepared by the Automotive
Safety Foundation and entitled,
Moving Ahead on Montana's High
ways. found that of sos cities and
towns and small unincorporated COM
munities in the State, 1877 are not
served by railroads. Consequently,
hey are completely dependent on
highway I'll SpOI OSnbiOits VI OliOoOy |
1877 places, are incorporated cities,
county seats. This report
goes on to note that of all forms,
highway transportation is the uni
yersal complement. 1t starts and
completes most trips by air. rail or
water in addition to all movements
,ver highways alone; but the fact
hat practically all trips of people
md goods must travel over the high
ways during some segment of their
does not change the fl
lancing picture. 1t should still be
eouired that each pays in accordance
With the cost occasioned on the high
way. 1t is impossible to see how the
little man" is hurt by requiring !
leavy user of highways to pay the ]
ost which he occasions thereon rath-
n than squeezing the extra cost out
# the same "little man. by an in
rease in the gas tax.
Under the present procedures,
the 'little mans tax dollar goes
to build thicker highways for the
heavy vehicle rather than longer
mileage of road suitable for lighter
trucks. These longer mileages of
light roads would go long way
towards bringing social and eco
nomic betterment for the little S
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