The Iowa House and Senate have voted to spend more money to print road maps of the State of Iowa.
“I know the maps are being used,” Representative Daniel Huseman, a Republican from Aurelia, said. “We know that because, for example, this year they ran out of them early.”
But some legislators, like Representative Daniel Lundby of Marion, question whether printing maps is tax money well spent.
“I understand that Iowans still use maps and I don’t want to take away the maps,” Lundby said. “But my generation, the younger generation — we don’t use them anymore.”
Lundby, who is 37 years old, tried unsuccessfully to get the House to vote for a survey to find out how the maps that are being printed are used. Representative Henry Rayhons, a Republican from Garner who is 50 years older than Lundby, said he hands out the free maps to constituents.
“I don’t think there’s any better way to sell Iowa than to have our Iowa maps distributed,” Rayhons said.
The state is scheduled to spend $242,000 to print 1.8 million maps in 2015. The Iowa DOT, however, will be printing maps once every two years rather than once a year. It means about a million fewer maps will be available for distribution over the two-year period. Each map — a folded, color print out of the State of Iowa and its network of roads and highways — costs 13.4 cents to produce.
Some states have stopped distributing free maps as a cost-cutting measure and a few now charge for printed maps.