Chapter 11 Flashcards
Anyone who lives in a metropolitan area is likely to be governed by who?
Municipal and county governments, school districts, and hospital districts
What is not a special district in Texas?
Municipal government
What is not an example of local governments in Texas?
Town
According to the Pew Research Center, the American public has a more what of local governments than of the national and state governments?
Positive view
In 2007, Farmers Branch in Dallas, Texas passed an ordinance that was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals; what was this ordinance a ban on?
Renting apartments to illegal immigrants
What are all local governments not bound by?
Municipal codes
The relationship between states and local governments follows from the fact that states have a ____ system of government
Unitary
_____ are creatures of the state that have only as much power as the Texas Constitution and Texas legislature grant them?
Counties, school districts, and special districts
Texas cities are classified as either ___ or ___
general law or home rule
What is a correct statement about a general law city?
It is an incorporated community with a population of 5,000 or less
Cities that limit the sale of beer and wine, freeze property taxes for seniors and people with disabilities, increase minimum wage, and place a cap on property tax rates is an example of ____
Initiative
What allows registered voters to force a sometimes reluctant city council to place a proposed ordinance on the ballot?
Initiative
To become a home rule city in Texas, a city mist have a population of at least
5,000 residents
Voters who wish to repel an existing ordinance can petition the council to hold a ___
Referendum election
What is an incorrect statement about recall elections?
They are used in general rule cities
What is a limit placed on home rile cities in Texas?
all of the above
What is not a form of local government?
Strong manager council system
In a council manner form of government, who is responsible for both executing council policies and managing the day to day operations of city government?
The city manager
Where do the powers of the city manger come from?
A city charter
Council manager government was initiated as part of a reform movement during the____
Progressive Era
In the strong mayor system, who is responsible for administration of city policy?
The mayor
What is considered a restriction on the powers of the mayor in some strong mayor council systems of government?
Nonpartisan elections, ethics, and campaign finance laws
In a weak mayor form of government, power is _____
Decentralized
The two largest Texas cities with a mayor council form of government are ____
Houston and Pasadena
Which city governments have officials who act as both executives and legislators?
Commissions
A majority of US cities have all of the following except ___
partisan elections
How many cities some or all of the city council members are elected by voters of the entire municipality than form neighborhood districts. What is this called?
At large city elections
Which type of election system has served as the primary means of increasing minority representation on city councils?
Single member districts
____ voting is an at large system that permits voters to cast one or more votes for a single candidate/
Cumulative
The idea that city fall is best governed by new look and fresh ideas and that limiting the number of terms for council members in the best way to achieve that goal is known as ____
Term limits
Which factors influence the sources and amount of revenue used to meet a city’s budgetary obligations?
Size of the city’s population, the amount and type of taxes a city is allowed to levy, and the total assessed value of taxable proper with the city limits
When it comes to the use of lobbyists to promote the needs of local government, what is an argument not used by critics?
Local governments need additional leverage when it comes to combating unfunded mandates
Property appraisals in all local governments are done by who?
Countywide appraisal authority
The maximum property tax rate of a general law city is _____
$1.50 per $100 of the assessed value of a city’s property
Home rile municipalities can set property tax rates as high as ____
$2.50 per $100 of assessed value
Some Texas cities have taken measures to limit increases in property taxes by ____
Freezing property taxes for the disabled and the elderly
A rollback election does what?
Voters in non school district jurisdictions limit an increase in the property tax rate to no more than 8%
What is not considered a city user fee?
Ad valorem
Local governments use public debt to fund what?
Roads, buildings, and public facilities
What is not a source of municipal revenue?
Income tax
Although Texas added more people than any other state, most of this growth bas been in ____
Suburban and exurban communities
Of the ten largest cities in the United States, Texas is home to how many of the largest cities?
Three
Which of the following statements about mandates is correct?
There is an increase in the number of mandates imposed by the federal government
What is not an example of a federal mandate?
No smoking ordinances
What public official is not a member of the Unfunded Mandates Interagency Work Group?
The lieutenant governor
Big cities in Texas have suffered less than many other US cities from “white flight”, urban decay, the evacuation of industry, and declining tax bases; one reason they have escaped some of the worst of these problems is ____
The state’s board of annexation laws
Texas cities can keep from being boxed in by suburban “bedroom” cities using their power of _____
Extraterritorial domain
What is an incorrect statement about colonia?
A colonia that is eligible for state aid cannot continue to receive such aid annexation by a city
What is not a statement about county government?
Texas counties, like cities, have home rule provisions
In terms of property taxes, the county is limited to a rate of ____ per $100 of assessed valuation
80 cents
What is an option county power authorized by state laws and various state codes?
A county may establish and maintain libraries, counties may regulate sexually oriented businesses, and a county government has the authority to maintain a county hospital
Which county official resides over the commissioners’ court?
The county judge
The commissioners court acts as a legislative ____
with limited authority to approve the budget for all county operations, to set the tax rate, and to pass ordinances on a narrow range of policies
The major influence exercised by the commissioners’ court over the county offices come form ____
their budgetary powers
What is not a power of a county judge?
Exercising judicial authority over felony cases
What is an incorrect statement about a commissioners court?
Commissioner districts need not be drawn on the basis of the one person, one vote principal
Commissioners are sometimes called ____ because they are responsible for the county roads and bridges within their precincts
road commissioners
What function does the county sheriff not have?
Operates the city jail
Who is the county law enforcement official elected to serve the process officer of justice of the peace courts and also has general law enforcement powers?
Constable
What is considered a county’s most important financial officer?
The tax assessor collector
When a county has a population of more than 8,000, which office assumes the county clerk’s role as record keeper for the district courts even as the county clerk continues to maintain records for the constitutional county court and any county courts at law?
district clerk
What is now a reason why reformers recommend a short ballot with fewer elected county officials?
They fear that concentrating too much power in a single chief executive invites abuse and threatens personal liberty
The unit system does what?
Takes the day to day responsibility for roads away from individual county commissioners and places in the hands of a professional engineer
Elected county officials hire county employees using ____
The spoils system
____ is the merging or joining of responsibilities by county and other local governments
Consolidation
What is a dependent agency and not a special district?
Crime control and prevention districts
The lessons learned from observing decision making in small cities in Texas ____
apply to larger cities, states, and national government as well
