THE AUSTRALIAN GRANTS-IN-AID SYSTEM

government. This fact becomes clear upon examination of Table 3. While expenditures of the ten largest cities rose 65 per cent over the period 1925-1939, property tax revenues rose only 33 per cent. Most of the increased collection was apparently due to an overall increase in rates, since the tax base assessed valuations rose only 13 per cent. To meet the crisis in municipal finance, the authors of the Treasury Committee Report on Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations recommended a recasting of the property tax into an " occupancy " tax based on the rental value of property. While this proposal has merit and would be a marked improvement over the existing property taxes, it does not offer a solution to the problem of finding additional revenue. It does nothing about exacting a contribution from the fringe-dweller for the services which he receives from the central city. Nor is the latter problem satisfactorily met by the proposal of Hansen and Perloff for more local sharing of state collected taxes.16 The large central cities seldom receive an adequate share of such taxes. For example, a study of the Wisconsin gasoline