LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 119 



cal circumstances in individual towns which justify an extension of 

 the lien, but it appears in general that the earlier the tax sale, the more 

 prompt are collections. 



Variations among towns in the percent of taxes uncollected on 

 January 31 apparently cannot be generally attributed to dilTerences in 

 tax rates or relative tax burdens. Those towns which held the tax 

 sale before February 1 had an average tax rate of $3.49 per $100 of 

 assessed valuation, compared with $3.19 and $3.29, respectively, for 

 those groups of towns which held their tax sale during the later pe- 

 riods. The three groups of towns were subsorted according to their 

 respective tax rates to determine whether or not differences in relative 

 tax burdens are important as a factor affecting tax collections within 

 the individual groups of towns (Table 2). In 25 towns which had a 

 tax rate of less than $3.00 only 11.8 percent of the taxes was un- 

 collected on January 31. compared with 17.0 percent for 34 towns 

 which had a tax rate of more than $3.50. In 30 towns which had a tax 

 rate of from $3.00 to $3.50. 18.4 percent of the taxes was uncollected 

 on January 31. This group, however, is heavily Aveighted by three 

 towns in which the tax sale was held between February 1 and July 1 

 and in which nearly one-third of the taxes were uncollected on Jan- 

 uary 31. Within each of the other two groups of towns, namely those 

 in which the tax sale was held before February 1 and those in which 

 the sale was held after July 1, there is a direct relation between tax 

 rates and the percent of taxes collected by January 31. but the effect 

 in general is of less significance than the time of sale as shown in Ta- 

 ble 1 for all groups. 



Table 2. Effect of Time of Tax S \le and Tax Rates on the Percent of Taxes 

 LTncollected at the End of the Fiscal Year January 31, 1938, Eighty- 

 Nine Rural Towns 



