Texas Government

Local Government Local governments are defined as “the government of a specific local area constituting a subdivision of a major political unit” (“Local Governments”). Local Governments have a significant role when it comes to the impact that it has on the lives of Texas citizens across the state. Texas has three major types of local governments. They are counties, municipalities, and special purpose districts. Although counties in Texas range in size and population, they all have the same structure and function. There are 254 counties in Texas (“Local government in Texas”). One of the responsibilities that a Texas County has is the public safety and handling of criminals. The production of services such as criminal courts, jail systems,

A municipality is a city government that regulates that city and the residents within. The two types of city government charters are the home rule charter and the general law rule charter. Only cities that are over 5,000 in population are allowed have their own charter (“Local government in Texas”). This is called a home rule charter. This lets larger cities have more control over their residents, allowing the government to be efficient and productive. While municipals under the general law charter are mostly under control under the state, the home rule charter allows municipals to have a different structure for governing (Home Rule). The main structural types are the council-manager, mayor-council, and commissioner government (“Local government in

For example, the population of a city in a city-county government can be very important when it comes to whether or not that city will have effective representation in that government (Funkhouser). The larger the population is, the better representation there will be. With local governments, there is an easier way to reach a greater amount of people. Since local governments also can be very specific with their intentions, more situations can be addressed than if it was a larger