tricts are quite negligible. The recreational category includes seasonal 

 residences, accommodation indvistries, and business properties which 

 derive their income primarily from recreation, and vacation-travel. This 

 class of property, and that classed as "electric plant," are predominantly 

 owned by non-residents who have no vote on appropriations, but who 

 pay a large proportion of the property tax. This group of 13 relatively 

 wealthy towns are most fortunate in being so located that they have 

 large amounts of recreational and electric plant properties. The average 

 tax rate for these towns was $3.43 per $100 of assessed valuation in 1957. 

 The school tax rate based on equalized valuation was probably less than 

 90 cents per $100. Obviously, this small group of towns can continvie to 

 retain a low property tax rate while giving much more liberal support 

 for town and school purposes than can less fortunate communities. How- 

 ever, none of these 23 districts maintains a high school because of the 

 small number of resident pupils. 



The report of the Planning and Development Commission also in- 

 cludes a table enumerating the number and valuation of "Seasonal Resi- 

 dences," which for the 13 towns comprise 58.1 percent of the assessed 

 valuation of all properties classed as "recreational." In two of the 13 

 towns seasonal residences are negligible, and electric plant or manufac- 

 tures are nnich more significant. For the state as a whole, permanent 

 homes, rental housing, and non-recreational commercial businesses com- 

 prise a major proportion (59.9 percent) of assessed valuations. 



The existence of the above extreme variations in taxable assets a- 

 mong school districts, when education is predominantly financed from 

 a local property tax, is of great significance with respect to the appor- 

 tionment of costs among pre-existing districts of a cooperative district. 



As equalized valuation per capita increases the amount of property 

 tax per pupil also increases, but the average school tax rate declines 

 (Table 6). For 34 districts with an equalized valuation per capita of 

 less than $3,000, the property tax per resident pupil was only $279, but 

 the school tax rate per $1,000 of equalized valuation was $20.67. For 13 

 districts having an equalized valuation per capita of $10,000 or more the 

 school tax rate was only $8.18, ])ut the property tax per pupil was 

 about double that of the former group, $548. Obviously, these 13 dis- 

 tricts, while enjoying a low school tax rate, were able to provide better 

 facilities, pay teachers higher salaries, have fewer pupils per teacher and 

 provide more transportation at public expense. 



Material provided by the State Department of Education shows that 

 95 (or 40.4 percent) of the state's 235 school districts qualified for some 

 "foundation aid" in 1961-62. Of the 195 non-urban districts, all but two 

 of the 34 having a per capita valuation of less than $3,000 qualified for 



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