POLS 2306 Ch 10 TX Local Govt & its Issues

🏡Local Gov’t (NSTR)

  • A wide variety of local gov’t types exist across the U.S.

  • Counties, cities, & subdivisions of local gov’t are prominent across US

    • They have different responsibilities in each state

  • In Texas, county government, city government & special purpose districts are important for us to learn

🏞 County Gov’t

  • Designed to provide governance in vast rural areas of TX

  • TX Constitution restricts counties

    • Lack power to legislate

    • Function like a lower-level extension of state gov’t

  • Counties come about in Texas in 1836

    • Were municipalities (ayuntamientos) prior

    • Today: 254 counties across Texas

      • Allows anyone that needed to access government the ability to do so in just one day while on horseback

      • Didn’t help sparse populations in West

  •  Functions for County Gov’t (vary across state)

    • Construction/maintenance of roads & bridges

      • County commissioners or ‘road commissioners’ given primary focus of positions

      • Maintain more than half of the state’s roads for a major costs on the county

        • Managed through commissioners’ offices for many counties

    • Law enforcement

      • Sheriff: chief law enforcement officer in county gov’t

        • Sheriff’s office is the primary law enforcement office for counties w/o major city PD

        • Responsible for county jails & prisoners  costly

        • Collects taxes in sml counties

      •  Constable: another elected office, though with more limited duties

        • Serve civil court papers

        • Provide bailiffs for justices of the peace

        • Developing own police force

    • Dispute resolution

      • County attorneys & district attorneys: separate in most counties

        • District attorneys prosecute major crimes, county lesser

        • Often combined into an office of the criminal district attorney in cities

      • County & district courts engage in numerous civil cases

    • Recordkeeping

      • County clerks maintain county statistics, to include

        • Marriage licenses

        • Birth and death certificates

        • Records for the commissioners’ court & county courts

        • Property transactions

        • Election and voting records

      • County tax assessor-collector

        • Collects taxes in larger counties

      • County auditor

        • Receives & disburses county funds, can prepare county budget

    • Administration of social services

      • Emergency welfare assistance

        • Food, housing, shelter

      • Health departments

        • Prevention & control of communicable disease

      • Parks, airports, fire protection, sanitation, etc

  •  County government organization

    • County Judge: presides over county commissioners’ court & constitutional county court

      • Administrative & judicial function

    • County Commissioners’ court: main governing unit

      • Not judicial (despite name); rather, administrative & authority on budget

    • Consists of four county commissioners: elected from precincts 

      equaling approximately Âź of the county population

    • Avery v. Midland County (1968): former precinct lines redrawn to reflect population, not territory

  •  Challenges of County Government

    • County Size

      • Great variation in county size:

        • Brewster County: 9,173 residents, 6193 square miles

        • Rockwall County: 87,809 residents, 149 square miles

        • Harris County: 4,441,370 residents, 1703 square miles

      • Small counties face major difficulties during hardships

        • Counties in very west no longer prosecute drug cases due to lack of budget

    • Accountability of Officials

      • Officials are elected, usually every four years  this poses challenges

      • Only other way to remove officials is to initiate a court proceeding against them

🏙 City Gov’t

  •  Politics at its most basic

    • Seemingly mundane concerns become central to gov't

      • Fixing pot-holes, addressing blight, creating parks, etc.

  •  General-law vs. Home-Rule Cities

    • Originally TX cities were structured w/general law, but shifted to “home-rule” w/urbanization

    • Today: 345 cities under home-rule, 871 under general law

    •  General Law Cities:

      • May act only as authorized by statutory law

      • Constitution limits what they can do

      • May levy, assess, collect taxes when authorized, BUT face limits

    •  Home-rule Cities:

      • Operate under a charter passed by citizens

      • Cities operate as provided by charter unless state constitution or law says otherwise

      • State legislature may seek to ‘preempt’ on certain issues, but generally stays out of city affairs

  •  Preemption – When the state acts to change city-level decisions it does not like

    • Examples:

      • City of Denton passes ordinance banning fracking in the city

      • State legislature passes HB 40 ‘preempting’ the fracking ban

      • City of Denton forced to repeal the ban

    • Governor Abbott has been outspoken & active in attempting to preempt city policies

    • Democratic dominance of cities versus Republican-controlled state legislature

  • Three Forms of City Government

    • Mayor-council

      • Oldest type of local gov't

      • Mayor elected at-large, city council either at large or in single-member districts

      • Mayor is chief executive of city, presides over council meetings, can make appointments

      • Council is legislative body, passing ordinances & overseeing executive

      • Dominant version of local gov't for the general law cities

    • Commissioner

      • Run by a small commission, 5-7 members elected at large

      • Acts both in legislative & executive ways

      • Act together to enact ordinances for city

      • Act separate by taking charge of individual city departments

      • Few cities use this form of local gov't in its pure form today

    • Council-Manager

      • City council elected in at-large election: focus on policy

      • Mayor selected from council members with largely symbolic duties

      • City manager hired as professional that would administer the city

      • Very popular across TX & the U.S.

 ✨Special Purpose Districts

  •  Unit of local gov't focused on providing a single service within a geographic area

  •  Two major types

    • Schools Districts

      • Every part of Texas falls into a school district

      • 1,265 districts: some as large as a county, others only cover single neighborhoods

      • Residents elect board of trustees for each district, 5 to 9 members

      • Trustees:

        • Set policy

        • Adopt budget

        • Set tax rate

        • Select textbooks

        • Hire principals, teachers & other staff

        • Determine salaries

    • Everything else (called ‘non-school special district)

      • Municipal Utility Districts

        • Electricity, water, sewer & sanitation outside city limits

        • Most found in Houston

      • Community College Districts

        • Residents pay property tax to district, in return for lower tuition

      • Hospital, Emergency Services, & Flood Control Districts

        • Serve poor & provide services to outlying areas

  •  Problems of Special Purpose Districts:

    • “Hidden Governments”

      • Many citizens are simply unaware that special purpose districts exist

    • Abuse of Power

      • Potential for abuse of property tax revenue, especially in non-school special purpose districts created to provide very particular services (MUDs, for example)