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Show Utah Road Repairs Will Cost Millions The Utah Legislative Couicil conducting a hearing into taxes and financing of highways in the state heard an estimate recently that the cost of bringing the roads up to standard would total $184.-150,000. $184.-150,000. The estimate came from Roy W. McLeese, chief engineer for the State Road Commission, who said that 85 per cent of Utah's roads need construction improvement. improve-ment. The road commission officials said also that the state is one year behind in utilizing federal aid, which becomes available at the rate of $4,600,000 per year. Mr. McLeese said that unlimited state revenues make it impossible to employ sufficient number of engineers to complete plans for new construction . and does not provide state matching funds in the amount which would be necessary nec-essary to use all of the federal money. He added, however, that a recent re-cent congressional enactment gives the state three years in which to catch up without forfeiting any of the federal appropriation. State Rep. Maurice Anderson (D-Springville) presided at the sub-committee hearing held pursuant pur-suant to a special resolution approved ap-proved during the 1949 legislative session. In his opening statement, Representative Rep-resentative Anderson said, "This commitee wants to be able to lay before the Legislature definite defi-nite recommendations on whether or not gasoline taxes should be raised, whether license plate fees should be hiked, and whether or not truckers are paying their fair share of highway construction and maintenance costs." |
