LOCAL GOVERNMENT
be adopted by the legislature as an
optional form of county government.
COUNTY HOME RULE
Presently fifteen states have some
form of county home rule (i.e., a divi-
sion of powers between the state and
the counties). Because counties, more
than municipalities, are artificial polit-
ical subdivisions, originally created as
local units for state administration, local
self-government has meant less freedom
for counties than for cities.2
Professor Clyde F. Snider has pointed
out,
"Provisions pertaining to munici-
palities usually confer, in addition
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[to charter making], rather broad
authority to determine and regulate
all matters which are primarily of
local concern as distinguished from
those of general state-wide interest.
County home-rule provisions, in con-
trast, are confined almost exclusively
to matters of charter-making and or-
ganizational forms and do not carry
any broad grant of substantive au-
thority over local affairs generally."3
Maryland is the great exception to
this pattern. Thus, in many ways,
Maryland's county home rule is closer
to the municipal home rule that is found
in other home-rule states.
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HOME RULE FOR COUNTIES-19604
State
|
Type of
Home Rule
|
Counties
Eligible
|
No. of 1960
Counties Adopting
Charter
|
alaska
|
Legislative
|
All boroughs
|
|
california
|
Self-executing
|
All counties
|
105
|
florida
|
Self-executing
|
Dade County
|
16
|
hawaii
|
Mandatory
|
All Counties
|
|
louisiana
|
Self-executing
|
Jefferson Parish
|
I7
|
maryland
|
Self-executing
|
All counties
|
48
|
michigan
|
Self-executing
|
All counties
|
|
minnesota
|
Legislative
|
All counties
|
|
missouri
|
Legislative
|
85,000+ people
|
19
|
new york
|
Permissive
|
All counties
|
310
|
|
|
(Outside N.Y.C.)
|
|
ohio
|
Self-executing
|
All counties
|
|
oregon
|
Self-executing
|
All counties
|
311
|
texas
|
Self-executing
|
62,000 people12
|
|
washington
|
Self -executing
|
All counties
|
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2 See Benton, The County Home Rule
Movement in Texas, 31 Sw. social Sci. Q.
108-120 (Sept. 1950).
3 C. snider, local government in rural
america 104 (1957).
4 Idaho's Constitution confers certain legis-
lative powers on counties but no charter-
making powers.
5 california : Counties of Los Angeles,
San Bernardino, Butte, Tehama, Almeda,
Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, San Mateo,
and Santa Clara.
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6 florida : Dade County.
7 louisiana : Jefferson Parish.
8 maryland : Counties of Montgomery,
Baltimore, Wicomico, and Anne Arundel.
9 missouri: Saint Louis County.
10 new york: Counties of Oneida, and
Onondaga.
11 oregon : Counties of Hood River, Lane,
and Washington.
12 Legislature may, by a two-thirds vote,
authorize any smaller county to adopt its own
charter.
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