Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1914 — JASPER COUNTY GETS $1,042.43 AUTO TAX [ARTICLE]

JASPER COUNTY GETS $1,042.43 AUTO TAX

Cost the Machine Owners of the County $1,306.72 —Expense of Department Too Much.

County Auditor Hammond, has just- received from the treasurer of state a voucher for $1,042.43, which is the amount Jasper county gets as a result of the new automobile tax law. Automobile owners in this county were taxed $1,306;72. It will thus be seen that the county lacked $264.29 of breaking even. That much to the expense of collecting the tax. The Republican believes that too large a per cent of the money paid in taxes goes to the expense of operating the law. * The statement received by Mr. Hammond sets out the following: Total taxes received by the state $150,235.30 Expense of operating 31,989.72 Net receipts. .*,....*...5118,245.58

The net receipts revert to the counties in three funds. One-third is apportioned on a basis of the mileage of free stone roads in the county; one-third on the net registration from the county and onethird of the net registration ©f the entire state apportioned to all the -counties of the state. Jasper county was accredited with 191 miles of free gravel and stone roads and received at the rate of $1.49 per mile, which gave the county $270.79. One-third of the net registration for the county was $343.22. Our part of the one-third of the total state- registration was $428.42. The total amount was thus $1,042.43. This will be a considerable aid toward the upkeep of the roads of the county, but The Republican believes that the cost of collecting the tax is excessive and that too many fat jobs are provided for politicians. - The cost of enforcing the law was in excess of 20 per cent, which is a large per cent for the collection of perfectly good debts.