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An Overview of County Government

History of County Government

Counties trace their roots to the English shire of a  thousand years ago. Serving a  dual function, the shire acted as the administrative arm of the national government as well as the citizen’s local government. The structural form of the shire was adopted along the eastern seaboard of North America by the colonists and adapted to suit the diverse economic and geographic needs of each of the colonies.

When our national government was formed, the framers of the Constitution did not provide for local governments. Rather, they left the matter to the states. Subsequently, early state constitutions generally conceptualized county government as an arm of the state.

After World War I, population growth, and suburban development, the government reform movement strengthened the role of local  governments. Those developments set the stage for post World War II urbanization. Changes in structure, greater autonomy from the states, rising revenues, and stronger political accountability ushered in a new era for county government.  The counties began providing an ever widening range of services. These trends continue apace today.

County Characteristics

Forty-eight of the fifty states have operational county governments. Alaska and Louisiana call their county type governments boroughs and parishes, respectively. Connecticut and Rhode Island are divided into geographic regions called counties, but they do not have functioning governments, as defined by the Census Bureau.

Hawaii and Delaware each have the fewest counties (3); Texas has the most (254). In addition to the 3,033 counties, there are 33 city-county governments (i.e., cities that have consolidated government functions with their surrounding counties). Jacksonville/Duval, City/County are examples of this type of government structure.

Counties vary greatly in size and population. They range in area from 26 to 87,860 square miles (i.e., Arlington County, Virginia and the North Slope Borough, Alaska). Similarly, the population of counties varies tremendously from Loving County, Texas, with its 67 residents, to Los Angeles County, California, which is home to 9,519,338 people.

Counties with populations under 50,000 accounted for nearly three-fourths of all county governments in 2000.

The Many Hats of County Government

Traditionally, counties performed state mandated duties which included assessment of property, record keeping (e.g., property and vital statistics), maintenance of rural roads, administration of election and judicial functions, and poor relief. Today, counties rapidly are moving into other areas, undertaking programs relating to child welfare, consumer protection, economic development, employment/training, planning and zoning, and water quality, to name just a few. 

Service delivery responsibilities, however, vary widely among counties. For most, constructing/ maintaining local roads is one of their primary duties. North Carolina Counties, however, have no responsibilities in this area. Wide variations also exist in the social service responsibilities and the types of utility services (e.g., water supply) provided by county governments. 

The mix of services is oftentimes designated by shared responsibilitities with cities and municipalities versus unincorporated areas in the county.  In Indiana, cities and towns provide fire protection and only provide police protection within their boundaries.  The county police - the Sheriff's Department - primarily handles calls only in the unincorporated areas, although all police units are expected to provide mutual aid when needed.  Similarly, cities and towns handle their own planning, zoning and building permits; the county provides these services only in the unincorporated areas.

This disparity is also evident from examining the state to state mandates for the Medicaid program, which has tremendously strained county budgets.  In Alabama, Medicaid is administered by the state, counties have no fiscal or administrative responsibility.  On the contrary, counties in Iowa fund 100% of the non-federal share for certain waiver services and 50% of the non-federal share for case management.

Per capita spending is an additional item that outlines the difference in county roles and responsibilites.  In 2001, Menominee County, Wisconsin had the highest per capita spending in the state for public safety expenditures: $1,508 versus Walworth County, Wisconsin which reported per capita spending of $179.37.  Alachua County, Florida reported experiencing a slight increase in per capita spending from $334 in 1989 to $343 in 1998.

County Finance

Revenues

State constitutions and statutes dictate the revenue sources counties may use. Barely half the states allow counties to impose a sales tax. Only in Indiana and Maryland is a tax on income a significant county revenue source.

Nonetheless, taxes continue to be the number one revenue generating source for counties, contributing nearly 35% of funds to general revenue fund.  For fiscal year 2000-01, property taxes accounted for 23% of the revenues and sales tax equaled roughly 7.5%.  Both of these figures represent decreases for county revenues.

According to the 2001 NACo Study County Revenue Patterns: A Survey of Authority Practices and as was evident in the 1998 Preliminary Investigative Report, property taxes accounted for the single most important revenue source for counties, reporting 30.6% of general revenue funds.  The sales tax was the second most significant revenue source for counties, with counties reporting collecting 14% of the general fund from this tax. 

The following states with a state sales tax do not permit local government to levy a local sales tax: Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.  More than half of the counties who responded to the survey reported sales tax as a percentage of the government’s revenue.

Counties reported that other taxes represent 13.6% of their general fund revenues.  These taxes include motor vehicle taxes, real estate transfer taxes, cable television franchise taxes and hotel/motel taxes.

A survey conducted in 2003 on the budgetary crisis facing counties revealed the following information.  Eighty-one percent of responding counties have experienced revenue shortfalls, and 56% of those stated that their state either proposed cutbacks or has cut back on funding for state-mandated programs.  One in four counties reported the level of state cutbacks could be up to 10%.

Expenditures

County expenditures are generally spent on the following areas: education services, social services and income maintenance, transportation, public safety, environment and housing, and general governmental administration.  The United States Census Bureau reports that in 2000-01, counties spent 14% of revenues on education services; 11% on social services and income maintenance; and 6% on public safety.

Continuing to provide these services when states are experiencing budget problems has not been easy for county governments.  The service industries that will be most affected by decreased revenues will be family and human services and correctional institutions.

Debt

These types of expenditures are long-term credit obligations of the government and its agencies whether backed by the governments' full faith credit or nonguaranteed.  Debt also includes all interest-bearing short-term credit obligations.  Nationally, counties outstanding debt equals 197,286,424 billion dollars.

On average, per capita debt outstanding totals $334, representing nearly 1.5% of resident per capita income for the counties surveyed in the 1998 NACo study.  Per capita debt outstanding is far higher for residents of the most urbanized counties ($500) than for the least urbanized counties ($172).

Counties as Employers

Government services are provided through numerous public bodies and agencies.  To fulfill these service responsibilities, county governments employ millions of professional, technical, and clerical personnel. Employment by county governments held relatively steady between 1997 and 2002, rising from 2,425,000 full time-equivalent (FTE) personnel in 1997 to 2,461,567 in 2002, an increase of 1.5 percent.

Most full-time equivalent employees worked in education, hospitals, and police protection.  Other employment categories covered were corrections, streets and highways, public welfare, health, judicial-legal, financial administration and fire protection.

According to Census Bureau figures, local governments nationwide employed 389.4 FTE per 10,000 population in FY2000. Top individual county employers were as follows:

Basic Forms of County Government

There are three basic forms of county government. Under all three, many administrative responsibilities are vested by state constitution or statute to independently elected row officers (e.g., clerk, coroner, sheriff, and treasurer).

Commission

The distinguishing feature of this type of structure is the fact that legislative authority (e.g., power to enact ordinances and adopt budgets) and executive powers (e.g., to administer policies and appoint county employees) are exercised jointly by an elected commission or board of supervisors.

Although governing body members are most frequently called   commissioners or supervisors, these        are not universal titles. Many governing body members in Louisiana, for example, are called parish police jurors. The county governing body in most New Jersey counties is the board of chosen freeholders.  

Commission/Administrator

Under this form, the county board of commissioners appoints an administrator who serves at its pleasure. That individual may be vested with a broad range of powers, including the authority to hire/fire department heads and formulate a budget. 

Council-Executive

The separation of powers principle under girds this governance system.  A county executive is the chief administrative officer of the jurisdiction. Typically, he/she has the authority to veto ordinances enacted by the county board (subject to their possible override) and hire/fire department heads.

Although a majority of counties still operate under the commission form, more than 40 percent have shifted to either the county administrator or the elected executive type. State policy-makers have contributed to this trend, as Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee now mandate that counties in those states be headed by an elected executive. 

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