OCR Text |
Show a tax for a purpose Grain! County residents this week along with other Ul.ihns, hegan paying an additional one cent per gallon of gasoline, under provisions of a law passed by the 1969 session ses-sion of the Utah Legislature. The cent tax was part of a package which calls for a systematic planning and building of roads on a state, county and city basis a well planned and coordinated effort never before matched in this state. The situation in Utah, like many other states plagued wilh large amounts of publicly owned land not on the tax rolls, has become critical. With miles of new highway coming com-ing onto the system each year through the Interstate program: pro-gram: and with the State still attempting to catch up on needed roads to isolated areas, such as LItah-95, Utah highway high-way planners have found that they have very little in the way of money to do much more than match federal funds rm the larger highways. Cities and counties are in even rougher shape when it romcs to building new and better road systems. If the sratc is to stay on top of its commitments in highways: if it is to develop in future years as it should develop: de-velop: if it is to entice industry by providing access roads us Governor Rampton recently pointed out, the recently-initiated recently-initiated highway tax was an absolute necessity. No tax increase is easy to take. Ut.ihns should he able in sec, however, results from this new gas tav in a well planned, well coordinated road and highway system in the future. |