Show COUNTIES RELIEVED of ROAD TAXES BY ROAD commission the state road commission last friday did It its spart part toward lightening th the a tax burden on tangible property proper ty in I 1 n utah when it tooh from tile the po counties unties the necessity of 0 levying any stater road taxes tor the tha cons construction or betterment of state roads lying within their respective spec tive boundaries ordinarily under the law tile the county Is permitted to levy a maximum ot of 3 mills on the dollar tor for highway purposes and the levies made in the counties of 0 the state from year to year have varied from nothing at all at times to a 0 fairly regular 3 mills the aggregate gg regate amount of tile the at state ate rad road oa tax fax has varied from as high as aa in 1920 to in 1932 recent action by tho the state road commission in taking over all federal aid activities has tended to lighten the burden placed on the counties old plan outlined wilon when the state road commission came into being the counties bore the burden to a great extent of road c construction 0 ns truc tion and maintenance in the their 1 r boundaries the state had bad asdall a small portion of the in state road bonds which had been issued between 1917 and 1921 it was up to the counties to do the rest using proceeds of the property taxes the gasoline sales tax at the rate of 2 12 1 2 cents was passed in 1923 and in 1924 an arrangement was made whereby tho the counties were relieved of halt half the cost ot of maintenance of roads they B supplied pitch a all the funds needed to M match itch federal aid in 1925 the tax was increased to 3 12 1 2 cents and the counties were relieved entirely of the burden of maintenance costs on state roads they were still required quiren d to match the federal aid funds and also to cooperate on betterment work about a year later the state began to contribute one half the sum required to match federal aid in counties who could not raise the necessary revenue and where state connections were necessary the gasoline tax was further increased crea to 4 cents in 1931 but sev eral hundreds ot of miles ot of new roads were added to the state road system and the proviso was mada that proceeds of the additional gas gaa tax must be spent on additional roads considerably more than that amount has been so spent according to the state records the counties were relieved of all costs coati of construction on the federal aid system a year ago leaving them with the burden of cooperation tor for betterment and construction on state roads which are not on the federal aid system eff effective uve on an the first of this month the counties will be no longer requested to participate in aay any engineering construction or better betterment mentor or maintenance of any road or on them too state road system but it if the individual counties desire to have work speeded up on a any ny highway within its ita boundary boundaries les they may ot of course provide funds by state otate road taxes it if they so desire otherwise the work will proceed as state funds become available and as ag the exigencies demand the announcement la Is of 0 course conditional on the state road revenues remaining approximately as they are at present one condition la Is that the motor vehicle and gasoline sales gales tax revenues remain entirely for their present uses ot of ro tiring state road bonds and construction st At and maintenance 0 01 roads t |