Local Government Services

Contents

Introduction
Local Government as a Whole
Local Government Types
Services Provided by Local Governments

Introduction
Indiana local governments provide many services:  education, police and fire protection, parks, hospitals, highways, housing, and many others.  These services are provided by counties, townships, municipalities (cities and towns), school corporations, library districts and other special districts (such as solid waste management districts or fire protections districts)--the six classifications of local governments used in Indiana.  

This page offers an overview of what services local governments provide, which governments provide which services, and how they do it.

Local Government as a Whole
Every five years the U.S. Bureau of the Census conducts a "Census of Governments."  This is like the decennial census of population, except it is governments that are surveyed.  Approximately 80,000 governments in the U.S. are asked where they get their revenue, what they spend it on, and how much.  The last Census of Governments was for the year 1997.  We'll use these data to look at Indiana local governments.

The first pie chart shows local government spending by function in 1997.  When it's all added up, one function dominates local government spending in Indiana:  education.  Almost half of all local government spending goes to education, which the Census counts as elementary and secondary education, plus libraries.  After education, the biggest slice of the spending pie is hospitals and health, with about 12% of spending.  Hospitals are the biggest part of this combined category.  The Census combines environment and housing programs into one category, which takes up 9% of spending.  About half of this slice goes to sewers and solid waste management, the rest to housing programs, community development efforts, parks and recreation, and natural resource management.

Public safety makes up 7% of total local government spending.  Police protection is the biggest part of this category, fire protection is second, and corrections--jails and prisons--is the smaller part.  Transportation accounts for 5% of spending.  Most of this is spending on road, streets and highways.  Airports and parking facilities make up most of the rest, with a little for public transit subsidies (for example, bus costs that are not paid by fares) and water transportation.  Welfare comprises 4% of the spending pie.  Most of this is not direct cash assistance (that comes from the state), but are for services like children's homes or payments to vendors for treatment programs. 

Administration accounts for 3% of spending.  The Census includes financial administration (for example, keeping track of spending) and building maintenance in this category.  Also included are the local courts, defenders and prosecutors.  Finally, there is a large "other" category.  Interest payments on government debt are the biggest part of "other." 

How does local government provide these services?  With employees, mostly.  The second pie chart shows that employee wages and salaries comprise 44% of local government spending.  Other operating expenses--supplies, fuel, utility payments, building maintenance, equipment--are 38% of spending.  Together, it takes 82% of all that local government spends to provide services here and now.

The other 18% results from capital spending--mostly construction of buildings and other facilities.  Construction accounts for 8% of total spending, and other capital spending another 5%.  Interest payments on bonds issued to pay for past capital spending accounts for 4% of total spending.  All other is a mere 1%.  This includes payments to other local governments, insurance payments, and a few other items.

Local Government Types
Education is the biggest function of local government, so it makes sense that school corporations are the biggest type of local government.  The pie chart below shows that schools account for 43% of all local government spending.  Cities and towns are next biggest, followed closely by counties, with 26% and 21% of spending, respectively.  Together, these three--school corporations, municipalities and counties--account for 90% of what local government spends.

Most of the rest is spent by special districts, which the Census counts as library districts,  and all other other special districts.  Townships (though there are 1,008 of them) spend only 1% of the total.

Services Provided by Local Governments  
Let's take the services of local government one by one, and see which governments are charged with providing them.  The table shows 1997 spending, in millions, by function and government type.  These data are from the 1997 Census of Governments.

Education. The Census puts elementary and secondary education, and libraries in this spending category.  No surprise, then, that it is the school corporations that account for 94% of this category.  Education is the biggest function of local government, and the school corporations together are the biggest local governments.  Special districts spend almost all of the rest.  These are the library districts, the special units of government Indiana has created to provide just libraries and related services.  The Census finds a stray few million provided by townships and municipalities. 

Welfare.  Local welfare is primarily a county function, with counties accounting for three-quarters of this spending category.  County welfare is mostly for "CHINS," "children in need of services."  Townships administer poor relief programs, which accounts for about 10% of local welfare spending.  The rest is provided by cities and towns.

Hospitals/Health.  Hospitals and health programs are mainly a county function.  Again, almost three-quarters of spending on hospitals and health is done by counties.  Of this amount, hospitals account for 95%.  Cities and towns also provide hospital services.  Some hospital spending is done by special districts, which would be units created by counties or municipalities to operate hospitals.

Transportation.  Most of this spending is on roads, streets and highways, and in Indiana this is a function of counties, cities and towns.  Transportation spending is almost evenly divided between counties and municipalities.  Non-highway transportation spending is mostly on airports, and this is mostly done by cities and towns.

Public Safety.  This category is the sum of police, fire protection and corrections.  Cities and towns spend almost two-thirds of this amount, because they provide all three of these services.  Municipalities have police departments, fire departments, and city or town jails.  Counties spend the next highest amount.  They provide police protection through the sheriffs departments, and corrections through the county jails.  Townships provide fire protection to people who live outside cities or towns (or contract with cities or towns to provide fire protection).  There are a few special districts which provide fire protection as well.

Environment and Housing.  This category includes parks and recreation, environmental protection, natural resource management, community development and housing programs.  All governments but school corporations do a little of this, but the municipalities do three-quarters of it.  That's because the biggest part of this category is sewers, which are mostly in cities and towns.  Cities and towns spend more on parks and recreation than counties do, as well. Townships provide some park and recreation services.  Solid waste management is a county, municipality and special district function in Indiana.  Cities have more of the housing programs.  Special districts do a good deal of the community development activity, through county-municipality development and planning and zoning agencies.

Administration.  This category includes financial management.  In counties these services are provided primarily by the Treasurer, Auditor and County Assessor.  Cities have clerks and budget agencies.  The township share in this category is almost entirely the township assessors and trustee-assessors.  Judicial and legal services also are included in this category.  Counties provide courts, prosecutors and defenders, municipalities sometimes have courts, and each require the advice of attorneys.  Building maintenance is another category included here, and counties, cities and townships have buildings to maintain.  (So do school corporations and libraries, but for some reason this spending is not split into sub-categories by the Census.)  

Other.  Every government type has a little bit of other.  The Census does not provide much detail about this category.  It does include interest payments on debt.  Every government type has this, because every government type sometimes sells bonds to finance the construction of buildings and other infrastructure.  

We can also use the data in the table to characterize each local government type.  What are the primary services provided by each?

Counties.  Counties are general purpose governments, charged with providing a wide variety of services.  The biggest expense is hospitals.  Other important functions (as measured by spending) are welfare, highways, police and corrections, financial management and administration of courts.  

Cities and Towns.  Municipalities also are general purpose governments.  The biggest single expenditure is on sewers, but other functions cost almost as much.  Important functions are police and fire protection, hospitals, highways and airports. 

Townships.  Technically, townships are classified as general purpose governments, but their functions have been limited over the decades.  The primary functions of townships are poor relief, fire protection and property assessment for tax purposes.

School Corporations and Special Districts.  The school corporations, library districts and special districts are "single purpose" governments, charged with delivering a single service.  The Census lumps almost all the school corporation expenditures under "education."  Special districts in Indiana primarily provide libraries, hospitals, community development services and some fire protection.