The Emergency Municipal Finance Board
This document is reprinted with permission from "The Manager Plan in Maine" published by the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy. Copies of the complete book may be obtained by calling the Center at (207) 581-1646.
Spawned during the Great Depression, this state entity was created by the legislature in 1933 and was composed of the State Tax Assessor, the State Treasurer, and the Commissioner of Finance and Administration (30 M.R.S.A., Sections 5301-5310). It was authorized to assume responsibility for the operation of a community which had become insolvent until solvency had been restored. In towns of less than 5,000 population, the board appointed a single commissioner to supervise the town's affairs.
The use of the board, especially during the depression years, had two main effects upon the development of the manager system. First, it introduced professional administration to those towns in financial difficulty (several towns under a commissioner later adopted the manager plan). Second, it may have been a warning to other towns to improve their financial operations before insolvency forced the state to intervene.