TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

Who has the power of utilities, trash collection, education, police protection, etc.? How many school districts are in the local county? How many law enforcement agencies? It is interesting that most people do not know who has the power to make decisions in local government, though it has a major impact on our daily routines.

What are the problems associated with relying on local property taxes to finance education?

How will the availability of revenue impact the quality of education? Does this violate precedents established by the Supreme Court?

One of the basic principles of democracy is that an educated populace will inform the government of what it wants.

In the United States where there are elected governmental officials at various levels, the people do have the potential power to influence those in government. Do people in the U.S. actually use such power? Do we know who the elected officials are? Do we know how the elected officials have represented us? If we have problems with government at any level, who is at fault? Is it the governmental system? Is it the elected officials? Or is it all of us, the populace? It is very easy to criticize the government, it is much harder to change it. In order to change the government one must understand how it operates.

LECTURE OUTLINE

What if all states allowed school choice/voucher?

       There is the widespread public opinion that the educational system in the United States is declining. Proposals for reforming schools tend to center around the concept of school choice, where parents get to choose from different schools in an open district system, or parents use vouchers given by the district as payment for tuition at private schools.

B.   One of the most likely outcomes of school choice in all states is that competition would increase among schools. Public schools would be forced to compete with each other and with private schools.

C.   Another likely impact would be that more new schools would open, particularly schools offering a specialized curriculum. Undoubtedly, some schools would be forced to close as well.

D.   One of the most controversial aspects of school choice, however, centers on the issue of separation of church and state. Should parents be able to use district vouchers to pay tuition for religious education?

II. The U.S. Constitution and the States

Article VI of the United States Constitution states that "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States, which shall be made in Pursuance thereof: and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the Land; ..." As we have seen before this means that any conflict between a legitimate state power and a legitimate federal power will always be resolved in favor of the national government.

However, this does not mean that the federal government can dictate all policies for the states. States have the authority to lay taxes, spend, and regulate intrastate commerce. Furthermore, state governments can take actions to promote and safeguard the health, morals, safety, and welfare of the people, providing these actions do not violate the United States Constitution or the laws made by Congress.

 III. State Constitutions

Constitutions set forth rights for the people, determine structure of the government and set forth the powers of the government.

The United States Constitution is a document of general principles and is therefore a relatively short document. Many state constitutions are documents of specific details. Why are state constitutions so long? In part the answer is the loss of popular confidence in state legislatures between Civil War and 1900 when many of the western state constitutions were drafted. These founding fathers did not want to leave anything up to the courts for interpretation. Another reason is that states feel compelled to be more specific in their constitutions because they, typically, are not interpreted as broadly by their courts as the U.S. Constitution is by the Supreme Court.

The problem with such long constitutions is the lack of flexibility. As time progresses, conditions change within a state. Some things that were important when the constitution was drafted will no longer be important Some things that were insignificant (or were not considered) will become important As these changes occur, a detailed constitution will have to be amended to cope with these new problems or if amendments are not made, the state government will not be able to deal with the new problems.

 IV. The State Executive Branch

A.  During the development of state governments after the Declaration of Independence, the amount of power bestowed on governors was very limited. 

Most power was placed in the hands of the legislature. The governor was primarily responsible for administering the laws passed by the legislature.

With the development of the long ballot where voters determined who would serve in a large number of executive positions, the power of the governor was limited further.

In many cases the governor is of one political party while a significant number of other elected executive officers are of the opposition party. 

B.   The evolution of the weak executive led many states to reorganize state governments since the 19S0s. While some of the reorganization efforts have increased the power of the governor, most states still have a weak executive model.

The major power for most governors is the veto, which can be an effective tool to stop legislation the governor does not advocate. ht all but seven states the governor has some form of the line-item veto. With this provision the governor can delete specific provisions within bills without rejecting the entire bill.

V. The State Legislature

A.  Specific action within states is still primarily the responsibility of the state legislature. While the power within each state legislature in considerable, how the legislatures operate is quite different.

With the exception of Nebraska, which has a unicameral legislature, all states have a bicameral legislature. 

The size of the state legislatures vary from the relatively small numbers in Nebraska (49), Alaska (60) and Delaware (62) to the large numbers in Pennsylvania (253) and New Hampshire (424). Compensation for legislators varies from ten dollars a day in Alabama to over $75,000 a year in California.

B.   Legislative apportionment is an important concept within every state legislature. 

The Supreme Court has held that state legislative districts must be as nearly equal as possible in terms of population. 

This means that after each national census the state must redraw the legislative districts so that an equal number of people reside in each district This always creates political conflicts within the state with various groups attempting to influence the drawing of district boundaries to maximize the influence of certain groups. 

The Supreme Court has held that extremely disproportioned districts are not valid. This has not however, eliminated the problem of reapportionment

C.   In addition to the state legislature making policy decisions, many states have forms of direct democracy available to their citizens. These include:

1. The Legislative Initiative is a procedure by which voters can propose a change in state and local laws by gathering signatures on a petition and submitting it to the legislature for approval. 

Twenty-two states use some form of the legislative initiative. A new type of legislative initiative was approved by the Oklahoma electorate in 1991.

In order to raise taxes the legislature must submit the tax proposal to a vote of the public, unless the legislature has approved the tax with more than a three-fourths majority.

2. The Referendum is an electoral device whereby legislative measures are referred by the legislature to the voters for approval or disapproval. Thirty-six states have some form of the referendum.

3. The Recall is a procedure enabling voters to remove an elected official from office before his or her term has expired. Fifteen state constitutions provide for a recall petition by the public.

VI The State Judiciary

Each state has a unique judicial structure, but they all share a basic structure that begins with a mal court and has a least one appellate court. 

The state court of last resort is considered to be the highest court in the state (usually state supreme court). In two states, Oklahoma and Texas, there are two courts of last resort, one court for criminal cases and one court for civil cases.

 From the state court of last resort, the United States Supreme Court can hear a case, if the case involves a federal question. This outcome is unlikely for any individual case, though. 

Unlike the federal system which relies on the president to select judges for lifelong terms of office, many states rely on the election of judges at some level. In other states, judges are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the upper house of the state legislature.

VII. How Local Government Operates

A.   The legal existence of local governments is significantly different from the legal existence of state governments. State governments created the federal government with the Constitution. Local governments did not create state governments. 

Local governments' existence is dependent on the state government The most narrow view of the legal status of local governments was outlined by judge John F. Dillon in 1811. 

Dillon's Rule states that local governments should take only those actions that were expressly granted by state law. In 1871 a Michigan judge, Thomas Cooley, ruled that cities can rule themselves without specific grants of power by the state government (Cooley's Rule). 

The actual power of local governments varies from state to state. Most states allow cities to operate under a city charter that the city can alter from time to time. This concept is usually referred to as municipal home rule.

B. There are four major types of local governmental units:

1. Municipalities are political entities created by the people of a city or town to govern themselves locally. There are over nineteen thousand city governments in the United States. The overwhelming majority of these city governments are small population cities. They provide the populations with essential services: fire department; police department; water department; sewer department; street department; and education. Most of the revenue comes from property taxes and grants from the national and state governments.

2 Counties are established by the state government to serve the needs of state government Basically county government is to apply state law and administer state business. There are over three thousand county governments in the United States.

3. Towns are a special form of government that is unique in the New England area. This form of government may include more than one city and allows the citizens to directly make decisions on a local level. This type of government is not used in all small cities in the United States that are commonly called towns. Most states proscribe by law what is a town and what is a city, but the form of government is not like the New England town form of government

4. Township is a form of government for people in rural or suburban areas of certain states (Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). These rural units of government were based on federal land surveys of the American frontier in the 1780s.

5. Special districts are governmental units that have the authority to make decisions regarding specific governmental functions like education. There are over forty- four thousand special districts in the United States. An example of a special district is a school district that has the authority from the state to make decisions regarding educational policy within the district

C. Consolidation of governments has long been encouraged by those who want to eliminate governmental units that are seen as inefficient.

 The major problem with consolidation is the resistance to elimination by effected governmental units. One type  of consolidation has been the council of government, or more popularly known as

The purpose of many COG’s is the pursuit of federal grants. But COG’s can only recommend actions. They do not have the power to make binding decisions on all I of the governmental units who have joined the organization.

D.  There are four distinct types of municipal representative governments. These include:

1. The Commission plan is a form of local government where commissioners are elected to make decisions for the city. The commissioners have both legislative and executive functions, which is atypical of other levels of government within the United States. This plan assumes the functions of government are to be operated as a business.

2. The Council-manager plan is a form of local government where a professional manager is appointed by the city council to act as the chief executive officer. The city council acts as the legislative unit and the manager is responsible for the daily .actions and operation of the city.

3. The Mayor-administrator plan is similar to the council manager plan. While the mayor is the elected officer it is the manager, who has been selected by the mayor, ! who is responsible for the actual operation of the city government

4. The Mayor-council plan resembles the state and national government format where the mayor is elected by the people to be the chief executive officer and the city council is elected to serve as the legislative body. Like state governments, the I power of the chief executive can either be strong or weak depending on the amount of power the chief executive is allowed to have by statute.

E. Machine politics was an important political structure in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The operation of the government was controlled by a select group of men who exerted great control over city government Bosses controlled the party organization and therefore controlled the nomination process. By providing jobs and services to people within subdivision of the city, the machine was able to ensure the election of the party candidates.

Usually machines were associated with major cities like New York City, Chicago and Kansas City, although machine politics was also practiced in other large cities and many smaller cities. 

Reform of municipal politics began with the Progressives who advocated the elimination of patronage and the establishment of a merit-based civil service. These reforms and others almost have eliminated machine politics in city government

VII.       PAYING FOR STATE GOVERNMENT

Most state and local governments expenditures are for social services, like education, safety and public welfare. The largest expenditure is on education, accounting for over 30 percent of all state expenditures and 40 percent of all local government expenditures. 

As states and local governments struggle with budgets and the reduction in funding by the federal government, the items that comprise the largest share of the budget are likely to be the most scrutinized for possible budget cuts.

B.  States have developed numerous methods to raise revenue. The general sales tax is the most important tax at the state level. Property taxes are the most important tax at the local level. 

Only seven states do not tax personal income. The amount of taxation varies significantly from state to state. The state that collects the most per capita is Alaska ($3,604). The state collecting the least is Mississippi ($1,087).

C.   In addition to tax revenue, states also raise non-tax revenue. This includes charging for services like transportation and utilities. In most cases the revenue raised from these services does not result in a profit for the state.

D. Many state governments were encountering budgetary problems in the 1990s. Some states have constitutional requirements for balanced budgets and therefore must take actions that either increase taxation or reduce services. 

In the 1990s, many states learned that increasing taxes was not as successful as solution to budget deficits as was cutting spending. Now some states are actually faced with budget surpluses (and demands from their citizens for tax cuts).

IX.  STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

ISSUES FOR THE NEW CENTURY

In the new century, many states will face the balancing act of trying to solve policy problems while keeping their financial house in order. And because of devolution, states will continue to be the center of new policy solutions. But their ability to implement new policies and maintain current levels of social services is constrained by their ability to pay for these services. States and the federal government will have to decide how goods and services purchased over the Internet will be taxed. These and other challenges certainly I will be faced by leaders within the states in the new century.

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Can States Control Betting on the Internet?

This feature discusses the issue of jurisdiction with regard to Internet gambling. States can regulate gambling within their jurisdiction, but thus far citizens within states can gamble via the Internet without breaking any laws. This is because states lack jurisdiction to regulate Internet gambling.

1.        Which business groups in America would bein favor of making online betting illegal, and why?

Legalized gambling trade associations, like the American Gaming Association, would favor making online betting illegal because online betting cuts into their market. Also Track Betting parlor owners and racetrack owners associations also would favor such measures. These organizations believe that if some people replace legalized gambling (from which the owners of the establishments derive a profit) with online gambling.

2.        Does the fact that the American Psychiatric Association considers obsessive gambling to be a mental illness justify state and federal efforts to prohibit Internet gambling? Why or why not?

While many obsessive behaviors are considered a mental illness, typically the governmental

Response is not to disallow that activity by the entire population.

Nonetheless, legislators contend that the nature of online gambling and its potential consequences warrant governmental intervention.