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Show USE OF HIGHWAYS IS METERED BY GAS TAX When a motorist drives up to a gasoline gas-oline filling station, buys several gallons gal-lons of gasoline and incidentally pays a lax of from one to four cents for each gallon of gasoline purchased, he Is paying for the use of the roads much In the same manner that he pays for his gas, electricity or water. In states where the gasoline tax is in. force, the use of the highways is "metered" "me-tered" and the motorist pays for that use in proportion to the amount of highway service he buys. Motorists who use the highways only occasionally pay very little. On the other hand those who make use of the highways for business and roll up large mileages each month, pay much . larger bills. Roads wear out and require re-quire expenditure for maintenance in proportion to the traffic they carry, and it is only fair that the cost of building and repairing them be distributed dis-tributed on the same basis. The gasoline tax is not a sales tax. Its purpose is not to raise money by a tax on gasoline sales but to raise It by a tax on 'road use. The amount of gasoline consumed is the best gauge for measuring the use a motor car operator makes of the highway, and tlie easiest and least expensive way of taxing the road user is by collecting the tax when the gasoline is sold. The gasoline tax is not a burdensome burden-some one. It is paid in small amounts, seldom more than from ten to twenty cents, when the gasoline tank is filled. The price of gasoline rises and falls every few clays, and the motor car owner usually pays the price asked without comment. A gasoline tax collected col-lected at the time of buying gasoline is. often paid without the realization that a tax is being collected. This method of paying for the use of highways presents little chance for evasion. Everybody who drives a motor mo-tor car uses gasoline, and it is impossible impos-sible to buy fuel without paying the tax. Tourists from other states, also, help. They enjoy and contribute to the wear on the roads in the localities they visit, but do not help to pay for the road service they enjoy unless there is some form of taxation based on actual highway use. More than three-quarters of tha states in the Union now meter the use of their highways by means of a gasoline gas-oline tax. They are employing a method meth-od which has been pronounced the fairest and most equitable yet devised for providing funds for road construction construc-tion and maintenance. The two elements ele-ments which have been found to be the principal factors in breaking down and wearing out roads speed and weight will gauge the cost of highway high-way use to the owner because both speed and weight influence the amount of gasoline required. |