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Truck use of roads is not free

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Whenever discussion turns to the condition of county roads, somewhere in the discussion commercial trucks get a lot of blame.

"It is true that a lot of the traffic on our county roads is from trucks hauling commodities to and from our facilities," said Stan Utting, manager of Agri-Producers, Inc., based at Tampa.

Utting points out, however, that his company puts a large amount of money back into the county treasuries each year through property taxes and vehicle tags and taxes.

The same is true for trucking companies, farmers, and other businesses.

In 2004, Agri-Producers, Inc., paid Marion County property taxes totaling $71,985.02. In addition, the co-op paid $22,110.47 in vehicle tags and taxes.

That cost does not include taxes paid on every gallon of fuel used by those trucks, some of which comes back to the county.

According to Delbert Peters of Cooperative Grain and Supply, the co-op pays more than $90,000 in property taxes to the county.

Although Cooperative Grain does not have its own trucks for transporting grain, fuel, and fertilizer, the company hires truckers living within the county. Those truckers pay property, vehicle, and fuel taxes.

Based on the foregoing facts, it seems reasonable to conclude that efficient, appropriate use of county funds as supplied by taxpayers will result in well-maintained roads for all of its citizens.

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