the county north-to-south over Metro Boston. The overlay reached from Rhode Island in the south to New Hampshire in the north and Framingham in the west. In 2008 the Office of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts opened a local office in Western Massachusetts. Counties The western portion of Massachusetts consists approximately of the four counties of Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden and Berkshire. This set of four counties is sometimes regarded as defining Western Massachusetts; for example, the Western Massachusetts Office of the Governor serves residents of these counties. Towns at the western edge of Worcester County, especially those near the Quabbin Reservoir, may be considered to be in western Massachusetts for some purposes; for example, two Worcester County towns have telephone numbers in western Massachusetts's area code 413. Hampden County, with over half of the population of western Massachusetts, includes the City of Springfield; to the north, Hampshire County contains the college towns of Northampton, Amherst and South Hadley; further north, rural Franklin County borders Vermont and New Hampshire; to the west is Berkshire County, bordering New York, Vermont and Connecticut and the other three counties. After a number of county governments were eliminated in Massachusetts in the late 1990s (including Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, Berkshire and Worcester), most county functions were assigned to the state government. The municipalities of Franklin and Hampshire counties then organized two voluntary county-oriented "regional councils of government". Attitude towards Eastern Massachusetts/Boston Some residents of Western Massachusetts are critical towards Boston, the state's capital and largest city. This group believes that the Massachusetts legislative and executive branches know little of and care little about Western Massachusetts, which comprises 20% of the total population of the state. Among the incidents that have created this feeling: The dismantling, submerging and disincorporation of four Western Massachusetts towns, Prescott, Enfield, Greenwich (formerly in Hampshire County) and Dana (formerly in Worcester County), to build the Quabbin Reservoir that supplies water to Boston. Also disruption of small towns accompanying flood control projects such as Knightville Reservoir and construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Extreme inequities in additional state assistances per capita for Western Massachusetts cities compared with Eastern Massachusetts cities—for example, in 2006, for every $278.66 Boston received, its neighbor Cambridge received $176.37, Greater Boston's westernmost city, Worcester, received $67.50, while the City of Springfield received $12.04 per person. Former state House Speaker Tom Finneran's use of parliamentary rules to deny Northampton