THE COST OF GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS, 



1910-1926' 



By Hubert W. Yount, Assistant Professor, and Ruth E. Sherburne, 

 Research Assistant, in Agricultureil Economics 



CONTENTS 



Page Page 



Summary __ 168 Charity, health and correction 199 



Introduction 169 General government 202 



The increase in public expenditures 171 Town expenditures required by law 204 



The purpose of public expenditures 175 Sources of funds to meet increasing 



Causes of the increase in public ex- expenditures 207 



penditures 177 Increase in departmental earnings 216 



Interest and debt 182 The public debt .,...> „ 220 



Highways 184 Appendix 223 



EJducation 188 



INTRODUCTION 



In common with other states, public expenditures in Massachusetts have 

 been increasing rapidly in recent years. The necessity of finding revenue to 

 meet the increased cost of the different ser\'ices performed by state and local 

 governments as well as to support many new activities has focused attention 

 on problems of public finance. This ^tudy was begun in 1925 in cooperation 

 with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture as one of a series of similar studies in several states. 

 The purposes of this investigation were: 



1. To show the increase in State and local expenses since 1910. 



2. To show the increase in expenditures for different purposes. 



3. To analyze the causes of increasing expenditures for State and 

 local purposes. 



4. To show how revenues have been obtained to meet increasing 

 expenditures. 



5. To analyze and compare the costs of similar governmental activ- 

 ities in farm and urban comnnmities. 



6. To compare benefits received from public expenditures with the 

 costs in farm and urban communities. 



7. To determine to what extent state financial aid is reducing the 

 tax burdens in agricultui'al towns. 



^ This is the second of two studies dealing with taxation and public finance in 

 Massachusetts, carried on in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. The first study was published in 

 April, 1927, as Experiment Station Bulletin 235, "Farm Taxes and Assessments in 

 Massachusetts." This was concerned primarily with problems of assessment and the 

 relation of the individual to local taxation. The authors are indebted to R. Wayne 

 Newton, formerly Associate Agricultural Economist with the Bureau, for suggestions 

 and criticisms of the present study; also to Professor D. W. Sawtelle, formerly of the 

 Djpartmont of Agriciiltural Economics, Massachusetts Agricultural College, for ma- 

 terial service in certain of the tabulations and in preparation of the charts. 



