WISCONSIN PUBLIC REVENUES


   Two of the services for which the expenditures have increased tre-
 mendously over the period are education and good roads. The total
 expenditure for highways in the year 1912 was $10,217,908. For
 schools it was $15,840,422. During the sixteen-year period 1918-1933,
 inclusive, the state and all its political subdivisions spent $786,853,-
 292 on highways. During the same period it spent $857,855,808 on
 public education. Therefore, there was spent during the sixteen-year


        THE PER CAPITA TAX BURDEN

        EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF THE

                        1913 DOLLAR
 PER CENT
1913 DOLLAR


Figure 8.


period for these two governmental activities alone, $1,644,709,100.
The tremendous inroads that such expenditures make on public reve-
nues is graphically shown by comparing this expenditure of $1,644,-
709,100 in the sixteen-year period 1918-1933 with the total tax levies
of the entire period 1901 to 1933 of $2,950,821,202. In other words,
of the total revenues raised from taxes during the thirty-four-year
period, 55.5% was spent for the two services of education and roads
in the last sixteen years of such period.
  While there are some who may deplore these huge expenditures for
these two governmental functions, the fact should be emphasized


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