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Land Use, Infrastructure, and Environment

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Land Use, Infrastructure, and Environment

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- Local governments use zoning to regulate the way land and buildings are used, thus shaping how a community develops.
- Zoning boards can regulate growth, preserve neighborhoods, and prevent the decline of land values.
- One essential duty for city leaders is maintaining infrastructure. - refers to bridges, roads, and water and sewer systems.
- Local governments make vital decisions regarding water service.
- Smaller communities may contract with privately owned companies to supply water.
- Local government is responsible for sewage disposal.
- Untreated sewage, if it is allowed to return to the natural water supply, can endanger life and property.
- Today, state governments are very concerned about pollution.
- Most states now require environmental impact statements for major governmental or private projects, describing how the project is likely to affect the environment.
- With huge concentrations of people, large cities across the nation could be drastically affected by air pollution and climate change.

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- State governments have a special obligation to regulate certain kinds of business.
- Their regulatory power in these kinds of industries is broader than the power of the federal government.
- Regulations affect many kinds of corporations, but laws regulating banks, insurance companies, and public utilities are especially rigorous.
- States also provide workers’ compensation payments to people who are unable to work as a result of job-related injury or ill health.
-  Workers who lose their jobs may receive unemployment compensation under programs that are set up and regulated by their states.
- State governments are active in trying to attract new business and industry.

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- Providing education is one of the most important functions of government.
- State governments establish local school districts and give them the power to administer the schools, but the state regulates the taxes that school districts can levy or the amount of money they can borrow.
- In the area of health, states license doctors and dentists, regulate the sale of drugs, and require vaccines for schoolchildren.
- State health agencies provide care for mothers and their newborn children, treatment of contagious diseases and chronic illnesses, mental health care, public dental clinics, and immunization against communicable and other
diseases.
- State and local governments offer important services to citizens who cannot afford them.

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- State police are normally limited in their functions.
- The state police have investigative powers in many states, but they possess broad police responsibilities in only a few states.
- State courts handle the great majority of all criminal cases in the United States.
- Fire protection is a local function that varies with the size of the community. In small towns, volunteers usually staff the fire department.

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The Structure of State and Local Executive Branches

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The Structure of State and Local Executive Branches

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- No state gives its governor power to appoint an entire executive team. Instead, they must work with some elected, appointed, and hired individuals.
- Forty-four states have a lieutenant governor, a position similar to that of the vice president of the United States.
- The lieutenant governor becomes governor when the office is vacated.
- The lieutenant governor also usually presides over the state senate.
- In all but eight states, the people elect the attorney general, who is the top legal officer in state government; in those eight states, the governor usually appoints the attorney general.
- In state government, the role of secretary of state is not at all like that of the federal secretary of state, which deals with foreign relations.
- The state treasurer manages the money that a state government collects and pays out.
- He or she pays the bills of state government and often serves as the state tax collector.
- Whether a local government is organized in a mayor-council, council-manager, or commissioner form, executive power is often shared between multiple individuals.
- These might include the sheriff, attorney, clerk, treasurer, auditor, coroner, surveyor, and school superintendent.
- Local executive branches can be arranged in a number of ways. Some towns are run like businesses, where a board of directors makes all of the big decisions.

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- In most states, the process of electing a governor has two basic steps.
- First, an individual must gain the nomination of a major political party, usually by winning a party primary.
- Next, after he or she is chosen, the nominee runs in the general election. In most states, the candidate who wins a plurality vote is elected governor.
- A plurality is the largest number of votes in an election.

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Qualifications of State and Local Executives

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Qualifications of State and Local Executives

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- Many voters pay more attention to the campaigns and elections of national leaders than state and local leaders.
Yet in many ways, the people who lead closer to home, on the state and local level, make decisions that affect voters more directly.
- Governors, county executives, mayors, and city managers and commissioners enforce decisions about education, recreation, housing, public safety, emergency response, social services, and even where new shopping centers can be built.

QUALIFICATIONS OF GOVERNORS

- A governor must be at least 30 years old, an American citizen, and a state resident for five or more years; however, citizenship and residency requirements differ widely among the states.
-  Governors must also possess certain political credentials and leadership experience.
Most governors have served in state and local government before running for governor; many have also served as lieutenant governor or as the state attorney general.

QUALIFICATIONS OF MAYORS

- A minimum age for mayor at somewhere between 18 and 25.
- Mayoral candidates are typically required to live for at least one year in the town or city, and if they are elected they must continue living there for the duration of their term of office.
- The average mayor in the United States is about 45 years old.

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- The roles that local executive branch leaders play are similar to those of presidents and governors.
-  They carry out ceremonial functions as head of state.
-  As chief executive, they oversee a staff that carries out laws passed by the legislature.
- They are the leaders of their political parties on a local level. In other ways, local executives often play very different roles than presidents and governors.
- Local governments also include special districts such as school districts or fire protection districts that stretch across county or municipal boundaries.

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- Like the president, state executives have limited power. Their actions are checked and balanced by their states’ legislative and judicial branches.
- All state legislatures must approve a budget proposed by a governor; they also have the power to modify it before approval.
- The principle of federalism also limits some state powers and, therefore, some powers of the governors.
- The national government has an impact on what states can and must do.
- The federal government contributes funds to the states to fulfill a variety of purposes, and governors must often administer programs that use those funds in line with federal requirements.

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Commander in Chief of the State National Guard

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Commander in Chief of the State National Guard

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- All governors can exercise military powers through their role as commander in chief of the state National Guard.
- All states and territories have both Army National Guards and Air National Guards.
- State constitutions allow the governor to use the National Guard to maintain law and order during state emergencies.
- In case of war or another national emergency, the president can activate the National Guard.
-The Guard are then under the president’s command and fall under the control of either the U.S. Army or the U.S. Air Force. Guard units have been activated in every major conflict since World War II.

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- Governors’ executive powers include two basic components.
- The power to carry out the law and the power to supervise the executive branch of state government.
- Governors have many tools and powers to implement laws.
- Governors can issue executive orders that create a task force to study issues or to address a variety of immediate concerns.
- Governors can also declare a “state of emergency” after a natural or man-made disaster.
- Governors typically have the power to appoint the top officials for executive departments and agencies.
- Most governors have the power to appoint some state court judges.
- To avoid public criticism, governors tend to issue pardons in the final days of their terms.

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Responsibilities, Roles, and Powers of Governors

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Responsibilities, Roles, and Powers of Governors

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- Every state has an executive branch headed by a governor.
- Since 1965, more than half the states have amended their constitutions to give their governors more power.
- Some states have lengthened their governors’ term of office--- others have given their governors more power to make appointments to departments and agencies.
- All states have constitutions that establish the powers and responsibilities of their governors.
- The major roles of most state governors mirror those of the president of the United States.
- Governors tend to be responsible for running the executive branch, influencing the legislature, acting as head of state and head of their political party, leading the state’s National Guard, and serving as a liaison to the national and other state governments.