LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 35 



towns might abolish local auditors and avail themselves of the facili- 

 ties offered by the newly created Division of Munici])al Accounting. 



Although the responsibility for general supervision of public 

 education is assumed by the state, much local business is transacted 

 at the discretion of the school district. The consolidation of schools 

 and of districts emanates from action by the local commanity as au- 

 thorized by public law. The trend toward the elimination and con- 

 solidation of small one-room schools is evident and probably will con- 

 tinue. In many instances districts might well consider possible ad- 

 vantages of joint districts, but this is not always feasible under the 

 existing fiscal system because of the extreme effects on tax rates 

 which may result from such mergences. (See Appendix 3 for illus- 

 tration of this debatable point.) 



Fortunately, the state constitution is brief with respect to local 

 government, and, accordingly, improvements in local organization 

 and administration are not generally dependent on constitutional 

 amendment. Thus the problem of improvement involves a distinc- 

 tion between those legislative acts which control and fix local prac- 

 tices and those which permit optional decisions by local units. For in- 

 stance, the voters assembled at town meeting can, if they choose, in- 

 struct the selectmen to appoint a highway agent and to eliminate 

 division of the town into highway districts. On the other hand, legis- 

 lative action is necessary in order to centralize all fiscal matters such 

 as accounting and reporting. 



