| Show defective road laws the chief executive of 0 indiana la is a strong advocate of good roads and I 1 la 3 determined that the road laws lawa of that state shall be radically revised he H expresses himself as follows 1 I knew before I 1 became go governor vernot that our road laws were detective and I 1 have learned much more since I 1 have been in office I 1 have been investigating the question lately with a view t to 0 future legislation and I 1 find the study not only interesting but I 1 may say appalling the road tax the state over will average more than 16 15 cents on WO we pay taxes on that means that we are supposed to pay about per annum for keeping our roads up I 1 want to say that I 1 am wholly and thoroughly convinced that not 50 per dent of this sum Is ever expended as the law provides A great deal of it Is never even collected the indiana law allows a taxpayer to work out his road tax the road supervisor Is solo boss boas and judge of this working out business and any sort of a slipshod report of the matter he sees fit to make to his township trustee suffices As aa a consequence abuse is almost universal and the most outrageous and flagrant frauds are perpetrated pet rated there is worth of railroad property taxed in indiana but do these railroads pay their 15 cents on the hundred dollars as prescribed by law not at all they work it out on the tree free gravel roads according to reports but the result of the work Is not apparent in some places I 1 doubt it if any of 0 the money the these railroads were supposed to pay tor for road tax and ot of which they did pay perhaps go 80 per cent tor for the tax receipts was expended on the roads ono one man who has several railroads under his control told me a short time ago that none of his roads ever paid over 80 de par ent rit tor for these receipts the railroads are reported on the books of nearly every county in the state as having worked out their road tax and I 1 challenge any man to elte cite me a single case where he has seen the employed emp loyes ot of any railroad working on our roads paying off this tax with the amount of money Ind indiana lalia is supposed to pay for road tax she ought to have the best roads in the united states but she has not and will not have until there Is corrective legislation there ought to be no such thing as working out road tax and the laws should be so revised as to insure the expenditure of the tax tar collected for the purpose it Is designed to serve I 1 am studying the new jersey law and other state laws and hope to be able to present some valuable suggestions to the next legislature |
