Local Government In Texas Case Study

Structure and Role of Local Governments in Texas

The local governments in Texas are smaller units that form part of the larger state government. These local government extensions act as the administrative branch of the state government. The state of Texas relies mainly on its constitution of 1876 to establish the various local government jurisdictions. Currently, there are 254 counties, 50 cities, 1,100 education districts and 2,393 special districts in the state serving a population of 26 million people (Collier et al.). Each of these branches of the local government has specific roles, which they are supposed to play.

The counties are the largest forms of local government in Texas. The role of the counties is mainly to provide health and welfare services to the county

residents. More specifically, the counties have a responsibility of maintaining correctional facilities, administering and funding all elections with the exception of municipal and special district ones, traffic management, registration and keeping of records related to births, deaths, marriages, land titles, and issuing the relevant certificates (Collier et al.). The counties are also responsible for the building and maintenance of local roads and bridges, and the collection of some taxes on behalf of the local government.
The cities in Texas are managed by municipal governments. They are led by mayors that are directly elected by the electorate. The mayor in turn leads a council of other elected representatives for various wards in the municipality (Flores et al.). The role of the municipal governments is to administer the affairs of the city. It issues licenses to businesses operating within the city while also collecting fees for business permits among others.
The local education districts are established to manage the education system in the state. These bodies are funded by the community in which they operate. While they do not directly collect taxes, the property taxes levied in those communities are channeled towards the local district education boards (Flores et al.).
The final form of local government in Texas comprises of the special districts. These are established with the aim of providing services that the county or municipal government cannot provide (Collier et al.). For instance, most of the special districts are formed to provide water to the residents. Others are sports authorities formed to regulate sporting activities within their jurisdictions.
Consolidation of Local Governments
The main purpose of having many branches of the local government is to take services closer to the people.

This helps to ensure that the residents get the services they need in a more effective way since they can make the local leaders accountable. This would be more difficult if the local leaders were handling large counties with many residents. However, in the case of Texas, it has too many branches of local government. This brings about more challenges to service delivery than benefits. One of the ways this happens is through increasing the bureaucratic processes. The addition of an extra layer of government such as through local governments only increases the hurdles the citizens have between them and service delivery. Another problem arises with regards to the ability of the many branches to handle specialized services. Some of the commonly needed services by residents include water provision, garbage collection, sewage management, flood prevention, among others (Flores et al.). These require resources that may not be available to the smaller branches of the local government. Therefore, consolidation of some of these local governments would help to improve efficiency in the service

delivery.