STATE AND LOCAL EXPENDITURES 31 
bridges. The figures represent all local expenditures on 
account of rural roads that are not a part of the state high- 
way system. 
Net local expenditures in Missouri for rural roads 
amounted to $13.8 million in 1929; gross expenditures, 
which include payments for interest and debt redemption, 
amounted to $16.3 million. The net and gross totals for 
that year were exceeded only in 1924. It will be recalled 
that in recent years the highway expenditures of the state 
were predominantly for capital purposes. Table 9 shows 
that in only four of the years of the period 1923 through 1929 
were local expenditures for construction larger than those 
for maintenance. For the period as a whole, however, ex- 
penditures for construction exceeded those for maintenance 
by slightly more than one third. 
Local expenditures for interest on funds borrowed for 
rural road purposes did not exceed one million dollars in any 
year for which data are given, and the 1929 amount was only 
$619,000. This indicates a relatively small amount of county 
and other local indebtedness for road purposes. It is appar- 
ent that a large part of the financing of local roads has been 
accomplished without recourse to borrowing. 
In order to obtain a complete picture of local expenditures 
for road purposes, including streets and bridges maintained 
by cities and incorporated towns, it is necessary to add the 
expenditures of cities over 30,000 that are classified as for 
highway purposes and the expenditures of all other cities and 
incorporated towns for streets, bridges, and the like. The 
net expenditures for rural roads amounted to $10.6 million 
in 1928; the net total expended by Missouri’s four cities 
over 30,000 for highways was $15.1 million; and the high- 
way expenditures of all cities under 30,000, including in- 
corporated towns, are conservatively estimated at $3 million. 
These figures make up a total of $28.7 million for net total 
local highway expenditures. Because of the inclusion of the 
estimated amount of $3 million, it follows that there is some 
margin of error in the total. However, since the estimated 
amount is very small in relation to the total, the margin of 
error is no doubt slight.