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.