Report: Mass. holds Boston back

Trapped by state-imposed constraints on growth, Boston is at a disadvantage in competing for business in the global economy, a new report said.

The Boston Foundation, a Greater Boston community foundation, today released a report titled, "Boston Bound: A Comparison of Boston's Legal Powers with Those of Six Other Major American Cities."

According to the report, other cities have more flexibility in wooing business opportunities, while Boston remains hamstrung by its subordination over the past century to state government.

In contrast to other cities, this relationship with state government limits Boston's ability to plan and conduct its business.

"No other city in our study operates within such a legal structure that has this combination of restraints," Gerald Frug, a Harvard Law School professor and a co-author of the study, said in a statement. "As a result, no other city seems as bound in facing its future as Boston does."

Among other cities the study examined were Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle.

The foundation said it plans to form a Home Rule Task Force that will make recommendations to address the report's findings.

Among those findings are that Boston is unusually reliant on state aid and property taxes and that the city is restricted in its ability to control its expenditures.

The entire report is available at http://bostonhomerule.org
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)