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Show GAS TAX REVENUE SLATED TO JUMP S100.000 IN 1927 Gasoline taxes collected in Utah this year will reach new heights with a comfortable surplus assured for financing financ-ing highway construction and maintenance mainte-nance on state trunk lines next year. From present indications it would appear that collections this year will aggregate more than $1,400,000 on the gasoline tax of 3.5 cents per gallon. This would represent a consumption of gasoline of in Utah of about 40,000,000 gallons in 1927. Considering the average av-erage price of gasoline at about 23.5 cents per gallon this represents an annual an-nual bill for gasoline alone of S9.400.000. Returns of taxes based on sales are complete only up to June 30. but there is an increase shown this year up to the present over the corresponding period in 1926. This increase has been noted despite the spring being unfavorable unfavor-able to automobile travel and it is believed be-lieved there will be a much larger advance for the remainder of the year sufficient to swell the collection from Sl.304,000 last year to a new high record rec-ord of at least SI .400,000, according to Charles Heiner, gasoline tax inspector for the secretary of state. Some estimates made place the figure fig-ure at nearer the $1,500,000 mark. However How-ever neither in the registration of automobiles auto-mobiles nor in the gasoline taxes will the state reach the average rate of increase in-crease this year that has ben set in the last several years. Sales of motor license plates are above those for 1926 considering corresponding cor-responding periods, but it is believed by inspectors for H. E. Crockett, secretary secre-tary of state, that the increase this year will not exceed 10 per cent. In the past several years the increase has been 15 to 20 per cent. Fees collected by the secretary for the first six months of the ,year from auto registration regis-tration amount to $605,848.98 compared with $575,741.85 for the first six months last year. Applying the same rate of increase for the second six months collections col-lections from this source should bring the total up to about $670,000, it is estimated es-timated by R. Cheshire, Jr., motor vehicle ve-hicle inspector. There is little doubt in the minds of state officials but that the gasoline and auto license surplus this year will exceed that turned over to the state road commission last January 1. The estimates above made would aggregate some $2,070,000 out of which $737,500 must be taken for payment of interest and sinking funds on state road bonds and $130,000 has been set up to meet the costs of administering the motor vehicle department leaving a net of $1,-202,500 $1,-202,500 which would be credited to the road commission. This is an increase of $13,500 over the amount credited to the road department last year. The gasoline tax has come to stay and the trend is upward in the tax rate, according to Mr. Heiner. In 1919 but three states had levied a one cent tax. Two years later the number had grown to 12 states with one of them imposing a two cent tax. In 1923 nine states had levied a tax of two and one-half one-half or three cents, eleven states had a two cent tax and 15 others had a one cent tax on motor fuels. This has grown every year until in 1927 some 46 states and the District of Columbia had enacted gas tax laws. Only two states had a one cent tax, twenty-two had a tax of two cents and others had tax rates as high as five cents per gallon. gal-lon. By the close of 1927 the revenue accruing ac-cruing to the state from gasoline taxes will approach $5,000,000 since the first gas tax law was enacted in 1923. The following shows approximately the collections by years: 1923 $ 399,500 1924 688,400 1925 1,072,000 1926 1.304,000 1927 1,400,000 |