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Yes but US counties are part of the state government. Roughly speaking city governments are independent and the county is not “above” it (technically it’s not q
by jahewson 4y ago
Yes but US counties are part of the state government. Roughly speaking city governments are independent and the county is not “above” it (technically it’s not quite that simple). A classic edge-case where I live is that San Francisco is both a city and a county.
Many US suburbs choose to incorporate into their own “cities”, in order to avoid being administered by the county, or annexed by a nearby city, so that they may tax commerce (think local strip mall or big box) instead of just property.
- jcranmer 4y agoThe US has 50 states, and there is wide variety in how each of those states handle counties. In one extreme, you have Virginia, where counties are the most local form of government (and cities are independent of counties, not to be confused with consolidated city-counties); on the other extreme, you have Massachusetts, where counties are basically just administrative boundaries for the state. And in between, you have different levels of county power versus state or more local (city/town/township) control.
- jandrewrogers 4y agoThis is not accurate. The relationship between counties, municipalities, and the States that contain them is very diverse in the US. None of this generalizes well.
- jahewson 4y agoOk, yes, yes it varies based on state. America!