,
Richland County,
Ohio Depending on the state, the township government has varying degrees of authority. In the
Upper Midwestern states near the
Great Lakes, civil townships (known in
Michigan as general law townships and in Wisconsin as towns), are often, but not always, overlaid on survey townships. The degree to which these townships are functioning governmental entities varies from state to state and in some cases even within a state. For example, townships in the northern part of
Illinois are active in providing public services—such as road maintenance, after-school care, and senior services—whereas townships in southern Illinois frequently delegate these services to the county. Most townships in Illinois also provide services such as snow removal, senior transportation, and emergency services to households residing in unincorporated parts of the county. The townships in Illinois each have a township board, whose board members were formerly called
township trustees, and a single township supervisor. In contrast, civil townships in
Indiana are operated in a relatively consistent manner statewide and tend to be well organized, with each served by a single
township trustee and a three-member board. Civil townships in these states are generally not
incorporated, and nearby cities may
annex land in adjoining townships with relative ease. In Michigan, however, general law townships are corporate entities (e.g. they can be the subject of lawsuits), and some can become reformulated as
charter townships, a status intended to protect against annexation from nearby municipalities and which grants the township some
home rule powers similar to cities. In
Wisconsin, civil townships are known as "
towns" rather than townships, but they function essentially the same as in neighboring states. In
Minnesota, state statute refers to such entities as towns yet requires them to have a name in the form "
Name Township". In both documents and conversation, "town" and "township" are used interchangeably. Minnesota townships can be either
Non-Urban or
Urban (giving the township government greater power), but this is not reflected in the township's name. Similarly, in
Ohio, some townships qualify for
urban township status, affording limited home rule government. A city or village is overlaid onto a township unless it withdraws by establishing a
paper township. Where the paper township does not extend to the city limits, property owners pay taxes for both the township and municipality, though these overlaps are sometimes overlooked by mistake. Ten other states also allow townships and municipalities to overlap. In
Kansas, some civil townships provide services such as road maintenance and fire protection services not provided by the county. ==Northeastern states== showing municipal and town organization
New England and New York In
New England and
New York, states are generally subdivided into towns and cities, which are municipalities that provide most local services. With the exception of a few remote areas of
New Hampshire and
Vermont and about half of
Maine, all of New England lies within the borders of an incorporated municipality. New England has counties, though in southern New England, they are strictly used as dividing lines for judicial systems and statistical purposes, while in northern New England, they often handle other limited functions, such as law enforcement, education and some public facilities in addition to judicial systems. New England also has
cities, most of which are towns whose residents have voted to replace the town meeting form of government with a city form. Maine has a third type of township called a
plantation, which previously existed in other New England states, that has more limited self-governance than other New England towns. In portions of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, county subdivisions that are not incorporated are occasionally called townships, or by other terms such as "
gore", "grant", "location", or "purchase". The
State of New York is subdivided into counties, which are subdivided into cities and towns—except for
New York City, whose five coextensive counties for state government purposes are municipal boroughs for city government purposes (
Bronx County/The Bronx,
Kings County/Brooklyn,
New York County/Manhattan,
Queens County/Queens, and
Richmond County/Staten Island). As in New England, the term "town" equates to "township" in most other states. Additionally, New Yorkers colloquially use the term "township" to mean "town". Townships and
hamlets are unincorporated areas within a town or towns. Because towns are administrative divisions of a county, town boundaries cannot cross county lines. In addition to administrative subdivisions, New York State also has
cities. Cities in New York are fully autonomous municipal corporations and, thus, are able to cross county lines and whose governments fully independent of county control. Finally, New York and Vermont also have villages, which are smaller communities lying within the boundaries of a town that provide additional government services not provided by their parent town, such as sewage, fire, law enforcement, garbage collection, public facilities, water and building code enforcement. In Vermont, most current cities were actually former villages that broke off from their parent town. Connecticut has
boroughs and non-consolidated cities, although these communities are not as autonomous as villages in New York and Vermont, and today there are only eight non-consolidated boroughs (plus the community of
Groton Long Point) and one non-consolidated city.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey A
Pennsylvania township is a unit of local government, responsible for services such as police departments, local road and street
maintenance. It acts the same as a city or
borough. Townships were established based on convenient geographical boundaries and vary in size from six to fifty-two square miles (10–135 km2). A
New Jersey township is similar, in that it is a form of municipal government equal in status to a
village,
town,
borough, or
city, and provides similar services to a Pennsylvania township, and varies in size from one-tenth (
Shrewsbury Twp.) to one hundred (
Jackson Twp.) square miles. ==Southern states==