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Show sixteen millions 1 auto fees spent Owners Are Taxed This Amount to Build New and Better Roads. MOTOR FOR EACH MILE Over Seven Dollars Average Collected From the 2,-445,644 2,-445,644 Cars in Use. WASHLYGTOX, July 8. Ninety per cont of the registration and license foes ! paid in 1015 by automobiles to the atatflH, or $lfi,213,3S7, was spent for the buiklinf,' inl maintenance of rounty and atato roads, according to a compilation compila-tion just pu.bl lulled, by the office of public roans, United Statea department of agriculture. Tn all, ,-l-l5,tfU motor vehicles were registered in that year and their owners pund a total of .$ l,24o,7 13 for registration regis-tration and drivers ' and dealers ' licenses. This is an increase of $5,81)3,-760 $5,81)3,-760 over 1014, and an incraso of 73-t,-,'12n in the number "oi vehicles roistered. rois-tered. Automobild foes now defray nearly 7 per cent of the total amount npent. on rural road and bridge building, build-ing, whereas in, 1906 the income from thin source was loss than three-tenths of one per cent of the total expenditure. expendi-ture. Increased to Millions. The growth of the volume of fees and registration is noted by the fact that in li)01 Now York, the first, state to require foes, collected only $954. In 1906 only 48,000 cars were registered throughout the entire United States. By 1915, however, the number had jumped to the figure given, so that there is slightlv more than one motor car registered for each of the 2,375,000 miles of road outside of the incorporated incor-porated towns and cities. The relation between cars -and road mileage varies widely in different sec-lions. sec-lions. There is only one motor car for every six miles of rural road in Nevada, hut nearly six motor cars for every mile of such road iu New Jersey. This is an average of one motor car for every sixteen persons, while only one for every 200 persons is registered for Alabama. There is great inequality in the registration regis-tration fees charged by the different states. The average for the United States was $7.46. The state of "Vermont, "Ver-mont, however, secured in 1915 a gross revenue of $ 1 S . 1 0 for each motor car, while Minnesota received only about 50 cents annually for each car. In Texas and South Carolina no an- uual registration fees are collected, the only requirement being a county fee of '30 rents and $1 respectively for perennial registration. Most of the states, however, also levy annual taxes on motor vehicles, and this adds importantly im-portantly to the revenue contributed by the owiiers of motor-propelled vehicles. In tho use of fees, however, there seems to be a general policy of applying apply-ing the ma.ior part of the monoy collected col-lected from automobilists directly to road betterment. In forty-two ot tho states of the union all of the major portion of the motor-vehicle revenue must be expended for the construction, improvement, or maintenance of the public roads, or for the maintenance of tho state highway department. In twenty states all of the major portion of the net motor-vehicle revenues are cxpendod by or under the supervision or direction of tho state highway department. de-partment. In seven states one-half to one-fourth of the state motor-vehicle revenues are expended through the state highwav department, and the remainder re-mainder by the local authorities. Many states, in addition to applying license fees to road construction, expend for this purpose a large part of the fines and ponalties collected from owners. |