Iowa County Raises Fines On Mennonites' Steel Wheel Tractors

Today's Des Moines Register reports that in Mitchell County, Iowa, the county's battle with Old Order Groffdale Mennonites continues. (See prior posting.) The county Board of Supervisors yesterday approved higher fines for driving tractors with steel-studded wheels on county roads while the constitutionality of such bans are still working their way through the courts. The county disputes whether driving tractors with steel wheels is really a protected religious practice, while the Mennonites claim that their vehicles do little damage to the roads. The new ordinance creates minimum fines-- $250 for the first offense-- to counteract the nominal fines that courts have been imposing. During debate on the ordinance, county supervisors kept raising the Biblical command against stealing, accusing the Mennonites of stealing from taxpayers by damaging county roads.