Currently, the local government of Texas is split up into a series of 1,196 cities, 254 counties, 1,089 school districts and 2,245 special districts (Texas Municipal League 9). The role of county governments is to provide a variety of different functions to the cities and districts within it, offering governmental services for residents and administrative services for the state. Governmental services include “road construction and maintenance, jails and courts, welfare, health and law enforcement,’ while administrative services include “voter registration and motor vehicle licensing” (9). Special districts are much more single-purpose, as they mostly just deal with education, water supply, hospital care or some other vital function to this area. Councils of governments (COGs) act as political subdivisions of the state, which cannot levy taxes or take on debt but can simply act on a voluntary basis to offer limited direct services to constituents.
There are also municipalities, which take on three different types of city governmental structures. The mayor-council form involves voters electing a mayor and council members, who appoint department heads to perform city tasks. The council-manager form of government sees voters electing a mayor and council, who then appoint a city manager to appoint the department heads and oversee them. A city commission form of government sees voters electing commissioners of certain departments, who all run their departments concurrently.
In the case of cities, local government is disseminated in varying ways. According to Texas state law, city governments can either engage in governmental or proprietary activities; among the former are police and fire departments, health services, street construction, transit, building and maintaining jails, and enforcing land use restrictions. Proprietary functions are operating and maintaining public utilities, operating city-owned amusements, or particularly dangerous activities of any other kind. Home rule and general law cities exist in Texas; must large cities in Texas are ‘home rule’ cities, in which city government can largely operate on its own provided that their actions do not directly violate a state law. General law cities, on the other hand, are much smaller in size (less than 5,000 people in the population), and are limited to state approval and instruction in what they can do. General law cities cannot operate without the express permission and approval of the state (TML 9-10).
While there are many other locations that have consolidated their varying forms of government into a more unified whole, I believe that the current, more diverse model of Texas government is much more effective in serving the myriad needs of Texas’ unique populations. Being such a large state, with several large cities existing among miles and miles of smaller towns and municipalities, the populations of each area of Texas are different enough that I feel as though consolidation would hinder each smaller district’s ability to see to its own different needs. Many areas of Texas have their own culture and priorities, from the bigger, culturally-diverse cities like Austin to its smaller farms and towns. Governing the city of Austin with the same staff, budget and priorities as a special district would serve both populations poorly. Each population is so different in terms of what kind of resources and funding it would prioritize that the public need would not be served. As it stands now, each unique area of Texas has their own set of officials working for them that only has to see to their needs.
Works Cited
Bowman & Kearney. State and Local Government: The Essentials. Third Edition. Houghton
Mifflin.
Texas Municipal League Handbook. 2014.
