LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 79 



sponsibility for property assessments and tax collections from towns 

 and cities to counties. The trend in New Hampshire is not in this di- 

 rection but rather toward retaining these services in the towns and 

 cities and toward expanding state supervision over local administra- 

 tion. The advantages of transferring these services to the respective 

 ten counties are not clear to the writer. New Hampshire is a small 

 state, and county government has not developed as an important unit 

 for providing public services except in the field of public welfare. It 

 appears that more can be accomplished by greater cooperation be- 

 tween the state and its towns than by expanding an already inefficient 

 county unit. Before one can recommend otherwise, it is necessary to 

 ofifer more evidence than is presented here that assessment and tax 

 collection are at present inefficiently administered by the town, and 

 that the county will function better. 



Towns, the principal units of local government in New Hamp- 

 shire, vary in area, taxable wealth, population, and in numerous other 

 ways. These factors cause extreme variations in the cost of similar 

 services, or limit the amount of these services, or both. There are, 

 therefore, extreme variations in town and city tax burdens, and in the 

 kind, amount, and quality of services. The tax svstem provided for 

 buying public services does not give uniform distribution of the 

 burden among the people. In p"eneral. rural towns with a small poD- 

 ulation, in contrast to those wnth a larger population, have a small 

 amount of taxable wealth, but have slightlv greater than average tax- 

 able wealth per capita (see Appendices 8 and 9). Furthermore, in 

 towns with small populations there are few people per square mile, 

 and the present population is only about half that of 1880. Small towns 

 spend little, but the expenditures per capita are greater than fo^^ <"^""=' 

 larger rural towns; they spend less per mile of road, and other public 

 services are known to be of a dififerent kind and quality. The amount 

 of property taxes necessary to meet these expenditures varies in about 

 the same relative proportion as the expenditures. Tax rates are, on 

 the average, only slightly higher in towns with larger than average 

 population. 



Analyses of the relation of selected factors to town expenditures and 

 property taxes show that, in general, town expenditures and property 

 taxes tend to bear a constant ratio to population and taxable wealth. 

 That is to say that, inasmuch as expenditures keep in line wnth taxa- 

 ble wealth, property tax rates are not influenced to any great extent 

 by these factors except perhaps in some unusual circumstances. 

 These statements are made without reference to the number, amount, 

 and quality of the governmental services provided. Whether or not 

 state aid for schools and highways, which is expended in those towns 

 of low taxable wealth, is of such amounts as to equalize the burden of 

 taxation to the extent that such towns are not deprived of the neces- 

 sary governmental services of standard quality is a matter not deter- 

 mined here. However, it is apparent that small rural towns are able 

 to provide an anpreciable number of public services at low costs be- 

 cause much of the local administration of those services is voluntarv, 

 and because some services, though presumably available, are relative- 

 ly inactive. 



