COST OF GOVERNMENT IN MASS. 171 



The more important functions performed by th€ city or town are the 

 assessment and collection of poll and property taxes, the maintenance of 

 local schools, the construction and maintenance of local highways, the admin- 

 istration of poor relief, and the control of local public health and sanitation. 



The more important functions of the central state government^ in 

 addition to the usual legislative and executive or police functions, are the 

 construction and maintainance of highways, the supervision and support of 

 educational actiAities, the care of the feeble-minded and ins>ane, and the 

 maintenance of correctional institutions. The State also levies and collects 

 various corporation taxes and the state income tax, and distributes the pro- 

 ceeds to towns and cities as provided by law. 



Table 1. — Total Annual Expenditures in Massaclmsetts, by Jurisdictions, 



1910-1926.^ 



(Thousands of dollars) 



^ Expenditures for all purposes, including new eonstruction. 

 - Payments on debt not available. 



THE INCREASE IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURES' 



From 1910 to 1926, reported annual expenditures for State and local 

 purposes increased from $122,293,000 to $356,971,000, or 192 per cent. (Table 

 1) However, the data are not strictly comparable before 1912, since a few 

 simall towns did not report until that year. The relative increase in expendi- 

 tures for the State and for counties, cities and towns from 1912 to 1926 is 

 shown in Table 2 and in Chart 1. In official reports, miunicipalities are 

 classiified as cities, or as towns over or under 5,000 population, according to 

 the most recent census. When a large town becomes a city or when a town 



^ Hereafter called State. 



s Data on public expenditures have been taken from the following sources: 

 State expenditures: 1910-1922, Annual Reports of the State Auditor, Mass. 

 Pub. Doc. 6; 1923-1926, Annual Reports of the Commission on Administra- 

 tion and Finance, Mass. Pub. Doc. 140. 

 County expenditures: 1910-1926, Annual Reports on the Statistics of County 



Finances, Mass. Pub. Doc. 29. 

 Town and city expenditures: 1910-1926, Annual Reports on the Statistics of 

 Municipal Finances, Mass. Pub. Doc. 79. 



