Southeastern Massachusetts has grown enormously over the past half-century.

Since 1960, the region has been adding about 10,000 people every year, according to the University of Massachusetts Darmouth's Center for Policy Analysis.

The population boom has added significantly to the burden on cities and towns. Public school enrollment in the region grows by 2,157 students each year, according to the center. New demands are also placed on aging water systems and transportation infrastructure.

Cities and towns in Massachusetts also have more responsibilities than those in other states, where many local government services are provided by counties or special-purpose districts, according to a recent working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

In addition, over the years state and federal governments have placed a dizzying array of mandates on municipalities: affordable housing regulations, environmental rules, emergency preparedness orders, anti-discrimination policies and many more.

"In short," the center said in a 2005 report, "the scope, complexity, and technical demands of managing town government have changed considerably since most Massachusetts towns were incorporated more than a century ago as part-time volunteer governments." The Pioneer Institute, a market-oriented think tank in Boston, is studying the cost of mandates placed on communities by the state government to find out whether the benefit is worth the money and whether towns or the state should pay.

Steve Poftak, the institute's research director, pointed as an example to the requirement that all towns with more than 12,000 residents have a veterans' agent.

"For Attleboro, one extra employee is not a big deal, but for smaller communities like Norton and Plainville, that extra employee counts," he said.

Another critic of mandates is Anne Wass, president of the state teachers' union, who cites federal education legislation like the controversial No Child Left Behind law passed in 2001.

That bill was passed with a large bipartisan majority, but one of its architects, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., now says the federal government failed to provide promised funding to help communities meet the standards set by the legislation.

"At some point, we need more commitment to funding at the state and national level," Wass said.