January/February 2004 · Volume 86 · Number 1

Units of Government in the United States (1997–2002) 

William Turk 
Driving into his parking space behind city hall, the city manager is dreading this day’s business. At the insistence of an autocratic mayor and a slim majority on the council, a 22-acre parcel of land has been purchased by the city for future development. This piece of property, while not currently within city limits, is within the extraterritorial jurisdiction or ETJ. 
The property takes the shape of a rectangle. Its sides are composed of an unpaved county road to the north, a state farm-to-market road on the west, a city street on the east, and an interstate highway to the south. Separating the interstate and the city property is a railroad track. 
There is currently a move to incorporate this spur railroad line into a new railroad district to service the newly announced Nash Rambler plant to be built five miles west of the city’s property. The property already lies within the jurisdiction of a drainage district. Two school districts and one community-college district also bisect the property. The manager is going to have to deal with all of these units of government before, during, and after development—after all, it’s part of the manager’s job. 
This is a fictional story, but how unusual is it? The 55 men who met in Philadelphia to write a constitution created a leviathan called federalism. Americans have struggled ever since with a multitude of governments, providing a complexity of services that overlap and bewilder the average citizen. The number of services delivered by the many units of government stretches seemingly to infinity. Governments themselves, however, can be and are enumerated. 
Every five years since 1957, in fact, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has conducted a Census of Governments. Information from the 2002 Census, which is now being released, will offer little consolation to the public manager struggling to cooperate with the various units within or adjacent to city or country limits. 
National and State Units
The best news is that there is still just one national unit of government. Despite efforts by Aaron Burr, the Confederate States of America, and the Republic of Texas, the United States remains one and indivisible. There are still only 50 states. Efforts to add Puerto Rico as a 51st state have been temporarily suspended. No new states have come into the union since 1959. 
Look at Figure 1 to see the complete story of what has happened with regard to governmental units in the past 50 years. The three lines representing counties, townships, and cities are almost flat for the entire period. School districts, however, went through a massive consolidation phase in the 20 years from 1952 to 1972, cutting the number of such governmental units by two-thirds. 
The single rising constant has been the number of special districts. Special districts have increased in number in every five-year period. The rate of increase has slowed, but the steady upward trend continues. 
Counties 
County governments declined slightly in 2002. Organized county governments are found in 48 states, with Louisiana and Alaska using a different term for this unit—”parish” in the former and “borough” in the latter. However, both these units closely resemble counties in other states. 
The official number of counties declined by nine, from 3,043 in 1997 to 3,034 in 2002. Massachusetts abolished seven county governments, while Kansas and Tennessee each consolidated a county with city governments.[1] 
Towns and Townships
This category is intended by the U.S. Census to identify units of government in 20 states in the Northeast and Midwest. The category includes governmental units officially designated as towns in six New England states, New York, and Wisconsin. Otherwise, the units are known as townships. 
These terms are used almost interchangeably in a number of areas. They are legal municipal corporations, performing municipal-style functions. Although their number declined by 125 from 1995 to 2002, there was still a total of 16,504 towns and townships enumerated in 2002. 
Municipalities
The single rising constant has been the number of special districts. Special districts have increased in number in every five-year period. 
Municipal governments, for census purposes, “include all active government units officially designated as cities, boroughs (except in Alaska), towns (except in the six New England states and Minnesota, New York, and Wisconsin), and villages.” Generally comprised within this category are places incorporated by state law and called municipal governments, whether they come under the general or special laws of the state.

In 1997, the Census of Governments counted 19,372 municipal governments. By 2002, this number had risen by 57, to 19,429. This small increase was attributable to the incorporation of new municipalities. It was an extremely small rise of some 0.3 percent, but an increase nevertheless. 
School Districts
The decrease in the number of school districts in 2002 continues a trend that has lasted throughout the past 50 years. Small, mostly rural, school districts continue to be consolidated and reorganized. The current number of school districts is 13,506. 
This represents a loss of 220 school districts from 1997, or a 1.6 percent drop. Over time, the decline shows a three-fifths drop in the past 40 years, and for 2002, the number of school districts is only one-fifth of the 1952 total. A great deal of consolidation and reorganization has certainly occurred. 
Special Districts
These governmental units represent the real story of the growth in numbers of governments over the past five years, and this period has simply been a continuation of a trend evident since 1952 (see Figure 1). Special districts are independent units of government that can perform a special governmental purpose (91 percent) or, in some cases, multiple functions (9 percent). 
They exist as “separate entities, have substantial fiscal independence, and have administrative independence from [other] general-purpose governments.” In many instances, state constitutions or state law will use the term “body politic” or “political subdivision” to denote their “special” independent status. 
Special districts may be created to carry out such a basic function as fire protection, hospitals, or roads. On the other hand, they may be set up to perform such exotic services as mosquito alleviation, noxious-weed control, or mitigation of wind erosion. 
As explained in its fine print, the Census Bureau notes the inclusion of “public authorities” in the category of “special districts.” The similarities between the two units are their separateness, financial independence, and special purpose. The basic difference is that an “authority” is a public business, engaged in an activity that produces or could produce a stream of revenue for the entity. 
Turnpike and highway authorities charge tolls, hospital authorities charge medical fees, and airport authorities charge fees for the use of land and buildings. Generally, the Bureau of the Census counts all these public units, which call themselves special districts or public authorities, as special districts.
In 1952, there were 12,340 special districts in the United States. Fifty years later, in 2002, there were 35,052, an increase of 184 percent. In the past five years, the rate of increase has slowed; the rise from 1997 was just about 1.0 percent.
In 1952, there were 12,340 special districts in the United States. Fifty years later, in 2002, there were 35,052, an increase of 184 percent. In the past five years, the rate of increase has slowed; the rise from 1997 was just about 1.0 percent. During the five-year period under consideration, however, another 369 special districts and/or public authorities were added to the grand total. 
As noted above, 91 percent of all special districts fulfill a single function, the most common being services related to natural resources, like drainage, flood control, irrigation, and soil and water conservation. The second most common single function is fire protection, followed by water supply. Fourth is housing and community development, and fifth is sewage. 
Summary
The leviathan of federalism, mentioned early in this piece, has produced a list of governments that can be summarized in the brief, handy-to-consult, and easily understandable chart that appears in Figure 2. If you are a public manager, consider cutting it out and pasting it on the back of your driver’s license. The next time somebody asks, “What makes being a public manager so difficult?” you can reach into your wallet and show them this tally. 
Then, courteously and with great patience, you can explain that your job requires you to work with a substantial number of these units daily: entities that are totally separate, sovereign, independently financed, and able to elect their own that officials and tax their own residents. They are created by state law or state constitution for special or general purposes.

These are the units of government that require a manager’s constant care, cooperation, consideration, and compromise. 

[1]All information for the Census of Governments can be found at this general Web site: www.census.gov/govs/www/index.html. At the top of the homepage is an active link that reads “Census of Governments 1992, 1997, 2002.” Click on “2002.” This will take you to a page where you must scroll down about halfway, or until you find “Volume 1, Number. 1, Government Organization, PDF.” Clicking on this link will pull up an Adobe Acrobat file containing 105 pages. Information for this article came from pages 1–13, Tables 1–9. 

William Turk is assistant professor, department of political science, University of Texas, Pan American, Edinburg, Texas (billturk712@yahoo.com).