New counties

[bgwah]

The creation of new counties (and county equivalents) is pretty rare. Are there currently any serious possibilties of new counties being created? New county movements are fairly common, but they rarely materialize.

Some recent examples:

I believe Broomfield, CO (city-county) is the newest county in the United States, having been created in 2001. La Paz, AZ is also fairly recent (1983).

Even changing county borders seems fairly uncommon. Colorado (again!) did this fairly recently, with Denver (another city-county) annexing land from Adams County for the airport. The independent city thing in Virginia has probably had some changes---I know the cities occasionally re-join counties.

Alaska has probably done some new boroughs recently and will continue to do so in the near future. That's not as interesting though...

[jimrtex]

The creation of new counties (and county equivalents) is pretty rare. Are there currently any serious possibilties of new counties being created? New county movements are fairly common, but they rarely materialize.

Some recent examples:

I believe Broomfield, CO (city-county) is the newest county in the United States, having been created in 2001. La Paz, AZ is also fairly recent (1983).

Even changing county borders seems fairly uncommon. Colorado (again!) did this fairly recently, with Denver (another city-county) annexing land from Adams County for the airport. The independent city thing in Virginia has probably had some changes---I know the cities occasionally re-join counties.

Alaska has probably done some new boroughs recently and will continue to do so in the near future. That's not as interesting though...

It would make sense to split some of the California counties like those that run between Sacramento and Nevada, and also Riverside and San Bernardino.

In Texas, Potter and Randall should merge.

In Colorado, a county commissioner from the southern part of the county has to drive through 6 county seats to get to his own county seat (it is only 4 in summer).

Within cities, counties don't necessarily have that much authority.  Broomfield was somewhat special because it was in 4 counties, and fairly removed from any of the county seats (Boulder, Greeley, Brighton, and Golden).  Aurora might consider becoming a city and county.

There are possibly some rural areas like most of Park, eastern Elbert, eastern Adams and Arapahoe, except they really don't have the population to support a county government.

[Bacon King]

The movement to recreate Milton County in Georgia has been gaining a lot of momentum. It would take a constitutional amendment, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen within the next decade.

[DrScholl]

In California, Santa Barbara County's northern half has often considered splitting, because the southern half is vastly different in just about every way. It was rejected by referendum in 2006, though, so I'm not sure how serious the backers still are.

[ilikeverin]

With the exception of California, quite frankly, I don't see why we shouldn't have a movement towards county mergers all over the place, if not abolishing the idea of the "county" at all.  What a worthless subdivision in this day and age.

But, of course, no one would do that.  Except I think a bill was introduced in Nebraska's legislature, but that's about it.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The most recent change in Virginia was Clifton Forge revoking its city charter and reverting to being a town in Alleghany County in 2001. South Boston in Halifax County did the same thing back in 1995.

There's a referendum in November in Alleghany County and Covington on the merger of the two localities to become the city of Alleghany Highlands.

[muon2]

With the exception of California, quite frankly, I don't see why we shouldn't have a movement towards county mergers all over the place, if not abolishing the idea of the "county" at all.  What a worthless subdivision in this day and age.

But, of course, no one would do that.  Except I think a bill was introduced in Nebraska's legislature, but that's about it.

Counties are a reasonably efficient scale to administer the courts, and they can be conveniently grouped for areas with smaller counties. They are also more effective than the state in maintaining local roads that are not in a city.

[Bacon King]

But, of course, no one would do that.  Except I think a bill was introduced in Nebraska's legislature, but that's about it.

Nebraska could use it more than any other state, I think; more than half of their counties have less than 7,000 people.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If a bill requiring that each county have no more than one school district ever passed the General Assembly, I could see some new counties being formed in South Carolina, with what I would call Dutch Fork county (formed out of Lexington-Richland 5) as being one.  (The Dutch Fork area was so named because the area between the Saluda and Broad Rivers was originally settled by Germans in colonial days.)

[bgwah]

The movement to recreate Milton County in Georgia has been gaining a lot of momentum. It would take a constitutional amendment, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen within the next decade.

Oh yeah, I've read about that... Here is something I just snagged off of Wikipedia:

"For the 2010 legislative session, Jan Jones (who lives in the new city of Milton, named for the former county) is now the speaker pro tempore of the Georgia House, and is expected to make a strong push for the new county.[9] The constitutional amendment will require two-thirds of each house and half of all voters in a statewide referendum to approve the re-creation of former counties (Milton and Campbell)."

Definitely seems possible... If they also re-created Campbell County, I wonder if they would just make Atlanta/Fulton some sort of city-county.

[Joe Republic]

It'd be nice if some kind of reorganization took place in Kansas City, regarding the four counties it currently spans.

[muon2]

It'd be nice if some kind of reorganization took place in Kansas City, regarding the four counties it currently spans.

Aurora, the second largest city in IL, also spans four counties. It causes some confusion for elections as well since Aurora has an independent election commission which supersedes the function of the county clerks. However, one of the four counties has an independent county election commission which supersedes the city commission. Thus one has a city with separate tabulation from its counties, except in one of the counties where they have separate tabulation from the city.

[jimrtex]

How do you think, a county system would be if it were invented now. I would think they were larger. The sacredness of counties seems to be very American thing.

This is due to a strong tradition of local self government, so they are not mere administrative regions of the central government.

[Bacon King]

How do you think, a county system would be if it were invented now. I would think they were larger. The sacredness of counties seems to be very American thing.

They would definitely be larger. I know in Georgia, at least, one of the primary reasons the state has so many small counties was the belief that the county seat should be no more than a half day's travel on horseback from anywhere in the county. That way, any farmer who had business in court would be able to travel there and back without having to stay overnight.

[ilikeverin]

With the exception of California, quite frankly, I don't see why we shouldn't have a movement towards county mergers all over the place, if not abolishing the idea of the "county" at all.  What a worthless subdivision in this day and age.

But, of course, no one would do that.  Except I think a bill was introduced in Nebraska's legislature, but that's about it.

Counties are a reasonably efficient scale to administer the courts, and they can be conveniently grouped for areas with smaller counties. They are also more effective than the state in maintaining local roads that are not in a city.

That's exactly why I think counties are ridiculous!  Just look at the counties of Michigan.  They're boxes that have no tie whatsoever to the underlying regions and communities they're suppose to represent.  So are Iowa's, and, well, pretty much everywhere else's.

[bgwah]

I think a lot of county borders could at least be adjusted. I think the situation where you have to drive through another county to get to the county seat is fairly common in the West. Colorado has smaller counties which is probably how you get to an extreme example like having to drive through six counties. In Washington, the people in Skykomish have to drive through a big chunk of Snohomish County to reach the rest of King County. It would probably make a lot of sense to add Skykomish to Snohomish County.

Efforts to create new counties in Washington have often just been scams promoted by development interests, though.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This is due to a strong tradition of local self government, so they are not mere administrative regions of the central government.

Given the weakness of local government (or at least of democratic local government; perhaps this is the important distinction?) in most of the U.S. I'm not sure if that's really an answer. And, of course they aren't regions of central government, but they are administrative districts of the states, aren't they? This was a contested issue once, and local government (such as it was) lost.

[Verily]

This is due to a strong tradition of local self government, so they are not mere administrative regions of the central government.

Given the weakness of local government (or at least of democratic local government; perhaps this is the important distinction?) in most of the U.S. I'm not sure if that's really an answer. And, of course they aren't regions of central government, but they are administrative districts of the states, aren't they? This was a contested issue once, and local government (such as it was) lost.

A mantra of American local government law is "Municipalities are creatures of the state." Municipalities (including counties) have no power independent of the states and can be overridden on any issue or dissolved/reorganized at will by state government.

There are some exceptions to dissolution-at-will in states where the counties are defined in the state constitution, but that's pretty rare (and even there the state government could dissolve a county without consent of the county in question, it would just have to amend the state constitution to do it).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A mantra of American local government law is "Municipalities are creatures of the state." Municipalities (including counties) have no power independent of the states and can be overridden on any issue or dissolved/reorganized at will by state government.

Yeah, thought it was about as clear as that. There's some interesting academic literature on how this position emerged.

[jimrtex]

This is due to a strong tradition of local self government, so they are not mere administrative regions of the central government.

Given the weakness of local government (or at least of democratic local government; perhaps this is the important distinction?) in most of the U.S. I'm not sure if that's really an answer. And, of course they aren't regions of central government, but they are administrative districts of the states, aren't they? This was a contested issue once, and local government (such as it was) lost.

Why do you say that local government is not democratic, when officials such as coroners and county surveyors are elected, and when towns in New England were governed by town meetings?

School districts are typically locally administered (and financed).

While sheriffs administer State law, they are locally chosen, and may provide different policy emphasis.

[jimrtex]

A mantra of American local government law is "Municipalities are creatures of the state." Municipalities (including counties) have no power independent of the states and can be overridden on any issue or dissolved/reorganized at will by state government.

This is not a mantra of the local governments.  It is the mantra of the centralists.

[muon2]

A mantra of American local government law is "Municipalities are creatures of the state." Municipalities (including counties) have no power independent of the states and can be overridden on any issue or dissolved/reorganized at will by state government.

This is not a mantra of the local governments.  It is the mantra of the centralists.

Indeed. To protect local interests many states provide a mechanism to grant home rule powers on certain local governments. In IL it then takes a supermajority act of the legislature to impose a state mandate on the home rule unit. For example, concealed carry legislation failed this spring due to the supermajority requirement needed to override home rule powers for municipalities including Chicago and Cook County.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The most recent change in Virginia was Clifton Forge revoking its city charter and reverting to being a town in Alleghany County in 2001. South Boston in Halifax County did the same thing back in 1995.

There's a referendum in November in Alleghany County and Covington on the merger of the two localities to become the city of Alleghany Highlands.

The referendum is going down; it's currently at 44-56 with 15/19 precincts reporting.

[Verily]

A mantra of American local government law is "Municipalities are creatures of the state." Municipalities (including counties) have no power independent of the states and can be overridden on any issue or dissolved/reorganized at will by state government.

This is not a mantra of the local governments.  It is the mantra of the centralists.

I did not say it was a mantra of any political group. It is the absolute truth, the gospel of American municipal law. It can, of course, be changed by a state constitutional provision or amendment (which, of course, is state rather than local action), but it is the default rule and the truth in the vast majority of states.

[TJ in Oregon]

The most unusual new county created was Bullfrog County, Nevada. It was carved out of Nye County to house the Yucca Mountain waste site because the federal government had planned to give revenues directly to Nye County instead of the state of Nevada. The state decided to make a new county with a population of zero around the site to funnel the money into state hands. Due to a myriad of legal issues, Bullfrog County was quickly dissolved back into Nye County.