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Deorganization in Maine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

William S. Carpenter
Affiliation:
Princeton University

Extract

The readjustment of areas and services in the local government of Maine is proceeding most rapidly through the process of deorganization in towns which cannot support the cost of local services. An act of the legislature in 1937 provides that whenever the organization of any town or plantation has been terminated, the powers, duties, and obligations relating to the affairs of the town or plantation shall be vested in the state tax assessor, until such time as the town or plantation is reorganized. A town or plantation in Maine at present comes into existence through incorporation by special act of the legislature and ceases to exist through the surrender of the corporate charter by special legislative enactment.

Type
American Government and Politics
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1938

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References

1 Public Laws 1937, Chap. 73.

2 Public Laws 1933, Chap. 216.

3 Revised Statutes 1930, Chap. 56, Sec. 116.

4 Articles XXII and XXXIV.

5 Fleming, J. W. and Owsley, R. H., “Maine's Emergency Finance Board”, National Municipal Review, Vol. 27, pp. 143147Google Scholar. There is in the Library of Harvard University an excellent doctoral dissertation by Mr. Fleming entitled “Maine: Studies in Resources, Finance, Local Government, and Economic History.” Early town legislation and the progress of deorganization is outlined down to November, 1937.

6 Oakes, E. E., Studies in Massachusetts Town Finance (Cambridge, 1937), p. 106CrossRefGoogle Scholar, n.

7 In the summer of 1938, the towns of Medford and Orneville in Piscataquis county held meetings to consider deorganization. Both towns are adjacent to the town of Milo, which contains a plant of the American Thread Company, as well as other industries, and may be considered a town of wealth. Medford has a tax rate of 86 mills and Orneville of 91 mills, and the fiscal pressure is certain to become more severe. But the idea that these towns might be annexed to the town of Milo was thought too trifling for discussion.

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