LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 129 



ever, on a per capita basis there is only a slight tendency for expendi- 

 tures or property taxes to be higher for towns with greater taxable 

 wealth. The property tax levy is 3.41 percent of the town valuation 

 for towns having a valuation of less than $400,000 compared with 3.24 

 for towns with a valuation of $1,000,000 and over, a difference in per- 

 centage of only 0.17. The tax rates for the two groups of towns 

 between these two extremes in valuation are approximately equal. 

 In general, the amount of taxable wealth per town is not an important 

 factor affecting tax rates, or, in other words, expenditures for these 

 groups of towns tend to increase in about the same proportion as the 

 taxable wealth. 



There are a few towns in the state in which assessed valuation is 

 extremel}' high in relation to population and to town expenditures. 

 In most instances this relation is due to the fact that there is a large 

 amount of utility property in the town. These towns were intention- 

 ally omitted from the sample of 89 towns, but such a situation is pre- 

 sented here to show the effect of a relatively large amount of taxable 

 wealth on a town economy. The town with the lowest tax rate in 

 the state offers an illustration of an extreme case. In 1929 this t6wn 

 had a total assessed valuation of only $610,945, an amount below the 

 average of rural towns. In 1930 and 1931 an electric utility corpora- 

 tion constructed a power dam within the town borders. The valua- 

 tion of this dam was added to the town inventory of taxable property 

 in accordance with the law which provides that all real estate shall 

 be assessed where it is located. Thus in two years' time this com- 

 paratively poor town increased its valuation to 15 times its former 

 amount, and had no appreciable change in population. Its tax rate 

 declined from $2.31 in 1929 (nearly equal to the state average rate) to 

 $1.07 in 1939, which is less than one-third the state average rate of 

 $3.45 for the 1939 levy. Yet with this low^ tax rate, the property taxes 

 per capita are now nearly double that of any other town or city in 

 the state. In other words, the resident voters determine the local 

 appropriations and the utility corporation pays the bill. Public serv- 

 ices are obtained at little expense to the residents. 



Assessed Valuation per Capita 



When the total taxable wealth of these rural towns is reduced to 

 a per capita basis, a factor is devised which varies much less among 

 towns than either total population or valuation per town. Thirty- 

 one, or one-third of the 89 towns, fall within the narrow limits of 

 $1,000 and $1,200 assessed valuation per capita. Nevertheless, Table 

 6 is presented to show the relation of this factor to other factors in 

 the scheme of analysis. Among the three groups of towns there is a 

 limited but consistent inverse relation between assessed valuation per 

 capita and population per town. Towns with less than $1,000 of as- 

 sessed valuation per capita have a population per town of 835, whereas 

 towns with $1,200 or more pf assessed valuation have a population 

 per town of only 531. There is no significant relation between valua- 

 tion per capita and total valuation per town, or between valuation per 

 capita and total expenditures per town, or between valuation per 



