216 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 256 



Table 43. — Index Numbers of Assessed Valuation, Taxes, and Tax Rates per 

 .flOOO Valuation, in Cities and Towns, 1910-192.5. 



Apparently taxes in the agricultural coniniunities have not increased as 

 much as in large toM'ns, but somewhat more than in cities. In order to measure 

 accurately the increase in taxes, total property taxes should be compared with 

 the increase in assessed valuation. This is done in the last section of the table 

 where the index of taxes divided by the index of assessed valuation shows the 

 actual increase in taxes or the index of the tax rate. First, comparing all prop- 

 erty taxes with the increase in valuation, the farm towns show an increase of 

 92 per cent in the tax rate, compared with 68 per cent for the manufacturing- 

 towns and 64 per cent for the cities. On the same basis taxes on real estate 

 have increased 90 per cent in the agricultural towns, 65 per cent in the manu- 

 facturing towns and 64 per cent in cities. The farm towns show a relative 

 increase in property and real estate taxes of 40 per cent more than the manu- 

 facturing towns and cities. For the state as a whole the tax rate in agri- 

 cultural towns increased 37 per cent more from 1910 to 1925 than property 

 taxes in non-farming communities. 



There are several reasons for this situation. Property values have in- 

 creased relatively faster in cities but the difference is partly due to increasing 

 the tax rate in small towns rather than increasing assessed values of real estate. 



Cities have relatively more personal property than small towns, and re- 

 ceive more from the income tax. Consequently in the rural sections real estate 

 has had to bear the larger portion of the increase. 



Increase in Departmental Earnings 



One method of meeting increasing expenditures is to charge for certain 

 public .services rendered. Such departmental earnings may arise out of control 

 and regulatory activities involving the issuing of licenses and permits, or they 



