The Dickinson Press

AUTOMOBILE LICENSE MONEY.

The present law provides that there shall be paid for each automobile in the state an annual registration fee of $3, the proceeds of which, after the necessary expenses have been deducted, shall be returned to the counties from which it was derived, to be expended in the maintenance of highways under the direction of the county commissioners.

Under the federal road law there will be some $75,000 available to the state of North Dakota as federal aid in road construction, provided an equal sum is appropriated by the state or within the state, and the work is done in accordance with provisions laid down in the bill. A bill which is to receive consideration by this legislature proposed the creation of a state highway commission which, in conjunction with the state engineer and the federal authorities, shall supervise road constructions undertaken in pursuance of the law. It is provided that of the sum to be paid by the state or its subdivisions, the state shall bear half the cost of all such work, and the counties in which the work is performed the other half. As a means of raising the revenue which the state will need for this purpose it has been proposed that the registration fee be changed, and also the disposition of the fund derived therefrom.

The proposed plan calls for a graduated license fee ranging from $5 to $15 a year, to be levied according to value or to horse power. This payment to be in lieu of all other taxation on the machines. The resultant fund is to be retained entire by the state, to be expended under the direction of the highway commission.

The county auditors of the state, at their session at Minot, declared unanimously against this change. Among the reasons advanced against it are the following:

The proceeds from registration fees should be applied to road work in the general vicinity of their origin, which is done very satisfactorily under the present arrangement.

While the advance from $3 to $5 for the cheaper machines would perhaps just about equal the sum of the license fee and property tax which the owner of such a machine now pays, the payment of $12 additional would by no means be equivalent to the property tax which the owner of the costly machine now pays.

The change would affect the owner of the small car only slightly, if at all, but it would work a material reduction in favor of the owner of the costly car.

While the proposed plan would augment the state road fund very materially, it would withdraw a corresponding amount from the general fund which is now paid in the form of a property tax, and this would necessarily be made up by increasing the tax on other property, as funds must be derived from some source.

The plan would be unfair and discriminatory in that it would place the entire burden of this particular kind of road construction on one class of property, whereas good roads are directly beneficial to all persons, localities and classes of business.

The commissioners are heartily in favor of the co-operation of the state with the federal government in good road work, but they believe that the necessary funds should be raised by direct general taxation.