Federalism and Local Government

Federalism

• Constitutional arrangement dividing power between a central government and subdivisional governments.

• In the U.S., states are the subdivisional governments.

• Both national and subdivisional governments have direct authority over individuals.

Necessary and Proper Clause

• Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution.

• Sets forth the implied powers of Congress.

• Congress can make laws "necessary and proper" to execute its powers.

Preemption

• The right of a state or federal law to prevent enforcement of a state or local law.

Categorical or Formula Grants

• Congress allocates funds for specific purposes.

• Examples: school lunches, airport construction, highway construction.

Revenue Sharing

• Initiated in 1972 by the Nixon Administration.

• Federal government gave unrestricted funds to states.

Mandates

• Federal government orders states to take certain actions.

• Examples: obeying housing laws, environmental regulations.

• Unfunded Mandates: Federal mandates without federal funding.

State-Local Relations

• State governments create local governments, so they can dictate to them.

• Each state operates as a unitary system in relation to its local governments.

• Unitary System: Central government is dominant.

• Federal System: Central and regional governments share power.

• Confederal System: Regional governments dominate the central government.

Dillon’s Rule

• States have preeminence over local governments.

• Expressed in an 1868 court case.

• Municipal corporations derive powers from the legislature.

• Legislature can create or destroy municipal corporations, and thus control them.

Home Rule

• Softens Dillon’s Rule.

• Cities can act unless denied by state law.

• Texas allows cities over 5,000 people to be designated home rule cities.

• Courts settle disputes.

• Urban legislators act as lobbyists for their communities.

• State law shapes local land use, spending, and tax options.

• States can delegate power generally or via specific statutes.

• Massachusetts requires Boston to raise money from property tax or state aid.

• Home rule gives cities power & requirements

Home Rule Cities in Texas

• Texas has 350 home rule cities with more than 5,000 residents.

• They operate under their own city charters.

• Examples: San Marcos, Fulshear, Katy, Sugar Land.

• About 30% of Texas cities are Home Rule cities.

• Home Rule cities can pass any regulations or laws it deems necessary unless state law prohibits it.

General Law Cities

• Cities with fewer than 5,000 residents.

• More than 70% of Texas cities are GL.

• General Law cities can ONLY do what the state legislature, through law, allows them to do.

• Example: Sunnyvale, Texas.

• Citizens can vote to become a Home Rule city.

Local Government Forms in Texas

• School districts.

• Special districts.

• Counties.

• Cities (municipal governments).

• Texas has more than 1,200 cities.

Texas Property Taxes

• Texas has no income tax.

• In fiscal year 2015, Texas had the 13th-highest per capita property taxes and the 9th-highest per capita sales taxes.

• Ranked 46th among states for overall state-and-local tax burden.

• Property tax legislation requires voter approval for property tax increases of more than 2.5 percent.

Preemption Revisited

• Higher government invalidates a lower-level government’s law when in conflict.

• Used regarding alcoholic beverage laws, gun laws, zoning laws, and FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.

Supremacy Clause

• Article VI, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.

• The Constitution and federal laws are the supreme law of the land.

• State judges are bound by this.

Federal Mandates

• Orders that induce responsibility at state and local levels.

• Unfunded mandates require actions without providing funds.

• Example: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Levels of Government

• One federal government.

• 50 state governments.

• 90,000 local governments.

• Federalism concerns the relationship between federal and state levels.

• The 10th Amendment reserves powers to the states.

• Commerce and elastic clauses give powers to the federal government.

• Local governments are subordinate to state governments; the U.S. Constitution does not mention or protect them.

State Sales Taxes

• Requiring retailers to collect state sales taxes on online and catalog purchases

No Child Left Behind

• Waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind education law and update the education law that created No Child Left Behind

The Workforce Investment Act

• Funding for the Workforce Investment Act to helps states build programs to attract and train workers.

Cyberattacks

• Help derail cyberattacks against local governments. States, counties and cities all are experiencing the same attacks.

Prescription Drug Abuse

• Encouraged the federal government to increase its coordination with states to combat prescription drug abuse.

Obama Administration

• State executives also hoped to block initiatives of the Obama administration to cut National Guard units and equipment, eliminate the tax exemption for municipal bond interest and increase the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's jurisdiction over waterways under the Clean Water Act.

Flint Michigan Water Crisis

• Michigan gave the state powers to take over failing municipalities by appointing emergency managers with unchecked authority.

• Emergency managers abandoned Detroit as its source of clean tap water in 2013, under the theory that it could reduce Flint’s high water bills by tapping into a new pipeline that was still under construction.

• The fateful decision to use treated water from the Flint River as the city’s water supply starting in 2014 while the pipeline was being completed — even though Detroit was willing to continue providing high-quality water under a short-term contract.

• This was supposed to save Flint $5 million.

Texas Legislation

• 89th Texas Legislature began in January of 2025

• State House has 150 members; Texas Senate has 31 members.

• Texas Constitution has a section of local governments.

• Laws of statutes of the legislature are revised and supplemented regularly.

• All four types of local governments in Texas must comply with both statutes and the 1876 Constitution.

Local Government Code

• As soon as practicable after a municipality adopts a charter or charter amendment, the mayor or chief executive officer of the municipality shall certify to the secretary of state an authenticated copy of the charter or amendment under the municipality's seal showing the approval by the voters of the municipality.

Type C General-Law Municipality

• A community incorporating as a Type C general-law municipality adopts the commission form of government.

Municipal Annexation

• A municipality may not, after annexing an area, prohibit a person from continuing to use land in the area in the manner in which the land was being used on the date the annexation proceedings were instituted if the land use was legal at that time.

• State law says a city can’t annex more than 10 percent of its geographic area in a given year.

• Communities might try to incorporate (become a legally recognized municipality) to avoid being taxed.

Limited Purpose Annexation

• The governing body of a home-rule municipality with more than 225,000 inhabitants by ordinance may annex an area for the limited purposes of applying its planning, zoning, health, and safety ordinances in the area.

General Powers of Municipalities

• A governmental act or proceeding of a municipality is conclusively presumed, as of the date it occurred, to be valid and to have occurred in accordance with all applicable statutes and ordinances if:

  • the third anniversary of the effective date of the act or proceeding has expired; and

  • a lawsuit to annul or invalidate the act or proceeding has not been filed on or before that third anniversary.

Padre Island

• The part of Padre Island located in Cameron and Willacy counties is frequented for recreational purposes by residents from every part of the state

• Orderly development and use of the area is of concern to the entire state

• Buildings on islands frequented as resort areas tend to become congested and to be used in ways that interfere, to the detriment of the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare, with the proper use of the areas as places of recreation.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

• Before Baker v. Carr (1962), state legislatures were often mal-apportioned.

• Rural areas had too many representatives.

• Plaintiff Charles Baker was a Republican who lived in Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee.

• By the time of Baker's lawsuit, the population had shifted such that his district in Shelby County had about ten times as many residents as some of the rural districts.

State-City Conflict

• Agriculture v. Commerce/Manufacturing

• Pietists (e.g., Baptists) v. Liturgists/Ritualists (Catholics)

• Natives v. Immigrants

• Anglos v. Other Ethnic Groups (Today)

Perot School Reforms 1985

• Special Committee on Public Education – 22 children per classroom in kindergarten – 3rd

• Texas Examination of Current Administrators and Teachers

• Merit Pay for teachers and Salary Ladder

• No pass, no play for extracurricular activities

States May Help Troubled Cities

• New York City Mayor Abraham Beame was faced with default on municipal debt in 1975.

• President Ford refused to help.

• The state created the Municipal Assistance Corporation to issue bonds and put its own credit at risk.

• The state also created the Emergency Financial Control Board which was given the right to alter or reject city budgets.

• Detroit has more recently been under state control because of its inability to pay its bills.

Edwards Aquifer Authority

• It has an elected board, but the state legislature decides whether it can impose a property tax or restrict pumping from the groundwater.

• Created the Authority as a special groundwater district with the purpose to manage and regulate the San Antonio segment of the Balcones Fault Zone Edwards Aquifer

Home Rule

• Home rule means different things in different states.

• MA law requires that the Boston Zoning Commission have 3 neighborhood people and members from the AFL-CIO, Contractors Association, Chamber of Commerce, and architectural firms.

HB 3405

• HB 3405 would expand the jurisdiction of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Groundwater Conservation District to include water well fields owned by Houston-based company Electro Purification.

• Electro Purification would have to report to the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer district how much water it withdraws from the Trinity Aquifer and be subject to pumping limits.

Local Governments

• Local governments defeated most bills.

Legislative changes

• All local governing bodies must now have a 60 percent vote before they can increase property-tax revenue.