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Show SENATE PASSES TRUCK TAX BILL BY BIGIARGIN Amendments Adopted to Eliminate Private Freight ?nd Passenger Carrier from Effects of Measure Working on the theory that truck operators who use the public highways as a means of making a living, should pay more for the upkeep of the roads than at present, a bill passed the state senate Tuesday providing provid-ing for a ton-mile tax on trucks and other commercial carriers, in addition to the regular license fees to which all vehicles are subject. The measure, proposed bv Mrs. Burton W. Musser, Salt jake county senator, passed by a vote of 21 for and two igainst. As the bill passed on to the house, however, it was amended to eliminate private motor carriers car-riers from the provisions of the act, the proposal being made by E. C. Knowlton, assistant engineer engi-neer of the state- road commission. commis-sion. M)r. Knowlton said that only one state attempts to regulate private carriers and gave as his opinion that this feature of the bill would be very difficult from the administration standpoint. Even with private carriers eliminated from the new tax, he stated, the hill would lay the ground work for a very desirable desir-able type of legislation. It was pointed out that 47 states tax and regulate common motor carriers, car-riers, and 3 4 states tax and regulate reg-ulate common and contract carriers. car-riers. The new basis of taxation provided in the act is as follows: fol-lows: "Common motor carriers of property and contract motor carriers of property shall pay two-thirds of one cent per ton mile of freight of any kind carried car-ried or transported on a motor vehicle unit on all hard-surfaced roads; on all other roads, one-fourth one-fourth cent per ton mile. "Common motor carriers of passenger and contract motor carriers of passengers shall pay two and one-half mills per passenger pas-senger mile for passenger service of any kind on all hard-surfaced roads, and one mill per passenger passen-ger mile for such passenger service ser-vice on all other roads." |