Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>
> Julia Thompson wrote:
> >
> >Each person in the US is governed at both the state and federal level.
> >
> Lucky Bastards :-)
>
> In Brazil, we are g*verned at federal, state and municipal
> [the polis, or city] level. Which means that things that must
> be done aren't, and taxes are levied in triplicate :-/
Oh, well, on top of the state and federal governments, there are other
jurisdictions.
I'll list some of the ones I know something about:
In New Hampshire, every square centimeter is in a municipality (town or
city) *and* a county. The school districts are by town. Several towns
can combine into a larger district if they want to. My junior high and
high school were for 2 towns, the one they were in (mine) and another
that had an agreement to pay $X per pupil per year to the first for
those schools.
In Virginia, you are *either* in a county or a municipality, at least
for governmental purposes. The jurisdictions are mutually exclusive.
The school districts are done by county or municipality. (I'm probably
getting something wrong. I've never lived in Virginia, just had it
explained to me by my mother who lives in Virginia.)
In Texas, you are always in a county and always in a school district. I
don't know of any school districts that cross county lines, but I
wouldn't be surprised to be informed that there are some. Incorporated
municipalities also exist. My address now is Hutto; I don't live in the
corporate limits of Hutto, though, I just live in Hutto's
extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). My school district is Hutto
Independent School District. I used to live in Austin's ETJ, then was
annexed so I was actually within the corporate limits. I was in Round
Rock's ISD. Both places are in Williamson County. (Most of Austin is
in Travis County, and sometimes it's hard to convince someone that you
are in Austin and not in Travis County.) On the house we were living in
(and unfortunately still own, anyone want a 2-story house just down the
street from Pond Springs Elementary?), we payed property taxes for the
City of Austin, Williamson County, and the Round Rock Independent School
District. The rotten thing was that after we were annexed, we were
paying more in taxes, but the police response time increased, at least
the published average did. (The one time we felt compelled to call the
police, they responded in a much shorter time than the average published
for that area. And the backup showed up fairly quickly once it was
called for, as well.)
That's all I can really comment on. Looks like a mess, doesn't it? But
for the most part, the various governments don't really have functions
overlap for any given jurisdiction.
Julia
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