How do municipalities in your area work?

[Zeffy]

A spin off from the 'what is a major city' thread, in this thread I want to examine the types of municipalities available in your area / state - what exactly differentiates one from the other? It'll be interesting to see how different places in the U.S. or even Canada, or even in Europe, differ from each other in this sense. So, to start, here's my observations on New Jersey municipalities:

New Jersey
5 municipality types: village, town, township, borough, city

Village:
* Small amount of residential areas / buildings
* Very small commercial developments if any
* Small population in general

Town:
* Small-medium sized areas
* Suburban
* Residential and commercial developments
Examples: Clinton, Secaucus, Boonton, Harrison

Township:
* Medium-large sized areas
* Very suburban
* Large amounts of residential developments, medium commercial developments
Examples: Hillsborough Township, Raritan Township, Washington Township, Ewing Township

Borough (Boro):
* Small-medium sized areas
* Urban, but not to the extent of cities (see below)
* Residential and commercial developments
* Small street grid system
* May have a 'downtown' or simply Main Street
* Most popular municipality type in New Jersey
Examples: Somerville, Raritan Boro, Hopewell Boro, Paramus

City:
* Small, medium, large areas
* Very urban
* Defined street grid system
* Split into wards
* Large amounts of residential and commercial development
* May have a 'downtown'
* May include high-rises and skyscrapers
Examples: Trenton, Camden, Newark, Jersey City

The important thing here is that any municipality can choose any government type regardless of what type it is, so this means that any borough could have a city government type and still be called a borough, etc.

[Doctor Whom]

Virginia

Most of the state, including some densely populated suburbs, is not located in any municipality.  The two types of municipalities are cities and towns.  Cities are independent of any county (with the minor exception noted below); in towns, responsibility for local government is split between the county and the town.

Cities used to be classified as first-class cities or second-class cities; the latter shared courts and certain constitutional officers with neighboring counties.  When the distinction was abolished, cities that had been second-class cities were allowed to keep that arrangement.

Maryland

Most of the state, including some densely populated suburbs, is not located in any municipality.  Baltimore City is the state's one independent city; apart from that city, there is no significant difference between cities and towns.

In some areas, special taxing districts called villages were set up to provide local services.  Some villages later adopted town charters; others did not.  Villages that are towns have police power that villages that are special taxing districts lack.

[1995hoo]

To add to the comment on Virginia, cities and towns have certain responsibilities that counties do not. They maintain their own roads, for example, except for certain roads of particular importance (Interstate and primary highways, the latter being a legal classification rather than just a "main road"). The counties do not generally maintain their own roads (again with a minimal number of exceptions for historical reasons dating to the 1930s)–VDOT maintains the vast majority of the roads in most counties, with the main exception being private roads (which includes subdivision streets maintained by HOAs). The towns may, however, request that VDOT maintain certain roads that feed directly into the primary system.

Cities and towns also do not share the same level of sovereign immunity (i.e., immunity from being sued) that counties do. Counties are, for most purposes, an extension of the Commonwealth and share the state government's sovereign immunity (subject to certain exceptions). Cities and towns are not such extensions.

Partly as a result of this disparity, cities are allowed to do certain things counties are not, such as collecting certain taxes the counties are not permitted to collect (example: some independent cities collect a "meals tax" on prepared meals, such as restaurant dining, that the counties are not authorized to collect). The cities and towns receive their authority via charters issued by the General Assembly (thus, particular cities' and towns' powers may differ) and from certain statutes applicable to cities and towns. One example is that cities and towns may issue municipal bonds, up to a certain amount, without the need for a referendum, whereas counties must conduct a referendum before issuing most bonds (one result is that we usually have at least one bond referendum on the ballot every November).

In general, the overarching principle of Virginia government is that Virginia is a "Dillon Rule" state in which the localities have only the powers specifically granted to them by the General Assembly or the state constitution, those powers necessarily or fairly implied thereby, and those powers that are indispensable to the functions of government (not just convenient, but indispensable). If there is any reasonable doubt on whether a given power has been conferred, then it has NOT been conferred. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but for purposes of a forum like this it's close enough. Virginia takes local government law very seriously and there's almost always at least one essay question on the bar exam relating to local government issues!

[Brandon]

Illinois:

There really is no difference between a city, a village, or an incorporated town in Illinois with the exception of the following:

A city is defined as a municipality divided into wards for council members; some may be elected at-large.  It can have a strong mayor with a council (ex: Chicago, Wheaton, Yorkville), or a weak mayor with a city manager and council (ex: Joliet, Naperville, East St Louis).

A village has a board of trustees usually all elected at-large.  It typically has a strong mayor with the board.  There are far more villages than cities in Illinois as incorporation is easier.  Population does not differentiate a city from a village.  Ex: Bolingbrook, Arlington Heights (largest village in the state), Minooka.

An incorporated town is similar to a city, but can be governed as a city or a village, and there are a mere nineteen of them in the state, all incorporated before 1870.  All of them were founded originally as townships that incorporated.  Ex: Normal, Cortland, Cicero.

Basically, it is a style of governance that differentiates a city from a village in Illinois with incorporated towns choosing one or the other.

The bigger differentiator in Illinois is if the municipality has home rule or not.  Illinois Constitution, Article VII:

SECTION 6. POWERS OF HOME RULE UNITS
    (a)  A County which has a chief executive officer elected
by the electors of the county and any municipality which has
a population of more than 25,000 are home rule units. Other
municipalities may elect by referendum to become home rule
units. Except as limited by this Section, a home rule unit
may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to
its government and affairs including, but not limited to, the
power to regulate for the protection of the public health,
safety, morals and welfare; to license; to tax; and to incur
debt.
    (b)  A home rule unit by referendum may elect not to be a
home rule unit.

They have extra taxation powers and have greater protection from state control.  They can also pass ordinances that can trump state law: Home rule rules, says the Illinois Supreme Court.

An Illinois Supreme Court majority has ruled that a home rule municipality may enact local ordinances with different requirements than state statutes, as long as the General Assembly has not expressly exercised exclusive control over the particular subject matter of the laws.

In Palm v. 2800 Lake Shore Drive Condo Ass'n, 2013 IL 110505, a 5-2 divided court upheld a Chicago ordinance concerning requests for production of financial records from condominium associations, even though the Chicago law differs substantially from two state statutes governing the same subject.

This PDF shows the 176 municipalities with home rule in Illinois as of 2006: http://www.celdf.org/downloads/Illinois%20-%20New%20Home%20Rule%20Communities.pdf

Of course, I'm not even getting into the various school districts, fire protection districts, sewerage districts, water districts, mosquito abatement districts, library districts, park districts, forest preserve districts, and others that are independent taxation bodies independent of any municipality or county in the state.

Municipalities are not confined by county boundaries, and may extend into areas where the ZIP Code may not match the municipality that has annexed the area.  An example is Joliet, the county seat of Will County.  It extends into Kendall County and a section of it has a Plainfield ZIP Code.

[sammi]

Yay international content!

In the Philippines, we call them Local Government Units (LGUs). There are three LGU levels; the second-tier LGUs are cities and municipalities (which is why we don't call all of them municipalities like we do in the US or Canada). Absolutely every piece of land in Philippine territory (that includes the Philippine-occupied Spratly Islands) is part of either a city or a municipality, both of which may or may not be part of a province (a first-tier LGU).



Municipality/Town (Bayan/Munisipalidád)
A local government unit with an area of at least 50 square kilometers, and a population of at least 25,000, and an average annual income of at least ₱2.5 million for the last two years. It is governed by a mayor and a Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council). Every municipality (except Pateros, Metro Manila) is part of a province.

Towns are generally very rural, so there isn't much commercial development (which might be found in the nearest city), more residential. There's usually the National Highway, small houses far apart, a lot of fields (mostly rice). A few kilometers in, you'll probably see an arch saying "Welcome - [Town]", which introduces you to the población or town proper (or town for short), the center of most activity in the town.

Town propers generally occupy an area of about 5~10 sq km, and it differs between towns how streets are laid out. For lowland towns, the layout is generally a grid; for mountainous towns, the layout has a lot of curved roads to adapt to the geography. Town propers are generally situated at crossroads; usually one being a National Highway, and the other one being an access road to adjacent towns or even another National Highway.

The main mode of transportation within a town is the motorized tricycle. The bus and jeepney are also used for longer-distance travel to other towns or to cities.



City (Lungsód/Siyudád)
A local government unit with an area of at least 100 square kilometers, or a population of at least 150,000, and an average annual income of ₱20 million for the last consecutive two years. It is governed by a mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsód (City Council).

Highly Urbanized City A city with a population of at least 200,000 and latest annual income of at least ₱500 million. Is politically independent of its province. There are 35 of these, 16 in Metro Manila. Example: Manila, Baguio

Independent Component City A city with a population of at least 150,000 and latest annual income of at least ₱350 million. Is politically independent of its province. There are exactly five: Dagupan, Cotabato, Naga, Ormoc, Santiago

Component City Any city that does not meet the above criteria is considered to be a part of the province in which they are located. Example: Batac City, Ilocos Norte; Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

Cities are more urbanized compared to towns (obviously). A lot of commercial developments as well, and most government offices are situated in the capital city, or in the largest city in the province. High-rise buildings are rare outside of Metro Manila. The street layout depends on the city; it is generally irregular, or at least does not conform to just a grid layout or just a radial layout.

The main mode of transportation also depends on the city. In smaller cities, the tricycle is more common; in Baguio, where tricycles don't work with the geography, the taxi is preferred. In Metro Manila, both exist, alongside the city bus network and the Strong Republic Transit System (which I just like to call the Manila Metro (or the Metro Manila Metro? )).



Barangáy (Brgy.)
A third-tier local government unit, part of either a city of a municipality, with a population of at least 2,000, or at least 5,000 in Metro Manila and highly-urbanized cities. It is governed by a Punong Barangáy (Brgy. Captain) and a Sangguniang Barangáy (Brgy. Council).

This, I think, is at the same level as the ward. Wards probably don't have another separate level of government, but barangáys do. Rural brgys generally have residents living in a single small area, surrounded by fields or mountains or water or whatever. Urban brgys have higher populations than rural ones, so they are generally populated all over.

[hotdogPi]

New England:

Towns and cities only. Some places are not part of a town or city, but this is generally only in Vermont, Maine, and a bit of New Hampshire.

[briantroutman]

California

Municipalities are either cities or towns, with unincorporated areas making up the remainder of counties and subject to county ordinance. For example, Marin County passed a ban on plastic shopping bags in 2011, but the law applies only to unincorporated areas of the county. Therefore the Strawberry Village  shopping center (on the NB side of 101), which has a Mill Valley address but is not within the bounds of the city, is subjected to the law, but shops on the other side of the freeway (within the city boundary) are not.

Cities may be as small as 700 and towns are as large as 70,000; there's no legal distinction with the state. All large cities are "cities" , though.

Confusion abounds (mostly among outsiders) over some overlapping cities and counties with shared names–as well as prominent place names that have no legal standing. Most medium to large California cities occupy a county of the same name (San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, etc.). San Francisco is a consolidated city and county, but Los Angeles county is nearly ten times the size of the city. LA city includes many other "cities" . Well-known names like Hollywood and Bel-Air are part of the city, yet LA partially or completely surrounds enclaves like Culver City, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills, which are independent municipalities.



Pennsylvania

Every square mile is part of a municipality of some sort–there are no "unincorporated areas" . Municipalities are either cities, boroughs, or townships, and all exist within counties (even through Philadelphia City and County are coterminous and county functions are handled by a consolidated city government.

First Class Cities: Philadelphia
Second Class Cities: Pittsburgh, Scranton
Third Class Cities: All the rest (such as Allentown, Harrisburg, Erie)
Boroughs: Typically smaller "towns"  (Carlisle, Downingtown, Clarion)
Townships: Cover the remaining territory

Supposedly, Bloomsburg is the only "town"  in Pennsylvania, but that's a distinction in name only and is otherwise has the same legal standing as a borough.

Townships may be suburban or completely rural and may also be adjacent to a city or borough with the same name. For example, several Bethlehem addresses are in the City of Bethlehem, while others are just outside in Bethlehem Township.

[vdeane]

New York:
-It's like the Russian dolls.  The state has counties with governments.  The counties have cities and towns which each have their own governments.  For the most part cities and towns are mutually exclusive, but Oneida, Rome and Saratoga Springs have inner/outer districts that act like a village and a surrounding town.  A town can have one, many, or no incorporated villages.
-NYC complicated things.  It acts like a county-level entity but is itself composed of counties (which most people call boroughs, though aside from name changes they're really the same thing here).  It essentially flips the county and city/town hierarchy of government in its area.

No matter where you live in the state, you're dealing with 4-5 layers of government (federal, state, county, city/town, village; federal, state, city, county/borough for NYC).

New England:

Towns and cities only. Some places are not part of a town or city, but this is generally only in Vermont, Maine, and a bit of New Hampshire.

Vermont has always struck me as being more similar to NY; at least, my Jimapco atlas shows the cities and villages incorporated in the same style that it uses in NY, and not the style it uses everywhere else in New England.

[SP Cook]

West Virginia

Municipalities are divided into 5 classes.

Class I city has more then 50K.  Currently Charleston and Huntington via a grandfather clause.  Eventually none.

Class II city 10K-50K.

Class III city 2K to 10K.

Class IV town or village (no real distinction between the two), less than 2K.

Main differences between the top 3 classes are in how they interact with state government, either independently or via a group.  Class IV cannot write its own charter, cannot borrow money, and cannot establish a municipal court that accepts radar without expert testimony from a non-cop (in effect cannot be a speed trap).

[DaBigE]

Wisconsin

Wisconsin classifies cities in a similar way to West Viginia:

- Cities of 150,000 population and over constitute cities of the first class.
- Cities of 39,000 and less than 150,000 population constitute cities of the second class.
- Cities of 10,000 and less than 39,000 population constitute cities of the third class.
- Cities of less than 10,000 population constitute cities of the fourth class.

Village:

In order to incorporate as a village, a community must have at least 150 citizens if it is in a rural area or 2,500 if it is in an urban area.

Villages are governed by a Village President and a Board of Trustees. Village officers include a president, clerk, treasurer, and assessor. Villages may also elect to hire a village manager to oversee day-to-day operations instead of an elected village president.

Town/Township:

In Wisconsin, a town is an unincorporated jurisdiction within a county; Wisconsin towns are similar to civil townships in other states. All areas in the state that have not been incorporated as cities or villages are parts of towns. Towns often have the same names as adjacent cities or villages. There may also be more than one town in the state (although not in a county) with the same name.

Towns have less authority than villages and cities. At the minimum, towns maintain their roads and zone land. Towns may choose to provide more services, however, overlapping with those provided by the county. In most cases, towns provide limited services and thus town residents often pay lower taxes than their city or village counterparts. Some towns have been authorized to exercise village powers, increasing their authority.[1]

Towns are governed by Town Boards, with the board chairperson at its head. These boards normally consist of three supervisors, though towns with village powers or more than 2,500 people may have up to five supervisors.

IIRC, there is no requirement to "upgrade" after population reaches a new level. For instance, the village of Menomonee Falls (Waukesha County) has a population of >35K, but has no plans of incorporating as a city.

[wxfree]

In Texas, there are two basic types of municipalities, general-law and home-rule.  Concerning "city" and "town" labels, there are statutory references to "municipal corporation," "municipality," "city," "town," and "village."  These designations seem to be chosen by the municipality, as opposed to being assigned based on some criteria.  A type-A municipality designated as a "town" can by ordinance change its designation to "city."  I'm not clear on what the differences are, but the labels seem to be locally chosen.  Every municipality I know of is a city, even the tiniest ones.  What is generally known as a town is an unincorporated community.

The real differences are between general-law and home-rule.  A city with a population of under 5,000 is general-law.  Under general law, the city is either Type A (aldermanic), Type B (aldermanic, plus an elected marshal), or Type C (commission type).  General-law cities have the option to adopt a city manager form of government, if approved by the voters.  In addition to aldermen or commissioners, and optionally a manager, each general-law city has a mayor.  The statutory chapter governing the type of city (A, B, or C) is effectively that city's charter.

Cities with a population above 5,000 may adopt and amend their own charters.  This is called home-rule and gives the city much more flexibility.  Home-rule cities can do anything that is not prohibited by law, while general-law cities have to follow a particular chapter of state law.

Home-rule cities have almost unbounded power to annex land, while general-law cities are much more restricted.  In general-law cities, the mayor is the municipal court judge, unless by ordinance the judge is elected or appointed, while in home-rule cities judges are elected or appointed.

Cities, counties, and school districts originate directly from the state, so their boundaries are entirely independent (with one exception, there is one municipal school district).  There is no impediment to a city incorporating or annexing across county lines.  A school district can serve multiple cities, and a city can be served by multiple school districts.

[triplemultiplex]

Wisconsin classifies cities in a similar way to West Viginia:

- Cities of 150,000 population and over constitute cities of the first class.
- Cities of 39,000 and less than 150,000 population constitute cities of the second class.
- Cities of 10,000 and less than 39,000 population constitute cities of the third class.
- Cities of less than 10,000 population constitute cities of the fourth class.

That's interesting, I didn't know about those city 'classes' in this state.

[roadman65]

Florida is either corporated or unincorporated.  The two types of corporations are Cities and Towns.  I believe, do not quote me on, are no different really.  The areas that are unincorporated are governed on the county level and therefore the county sheriff has the law enforcement and the head honcho is either a chairman or mayor.

In Orange County we have a mayor, but some counties have a chairman like we used to up until we voted on the title of senior executive name.

[NE2]

The two types of corporations are Cities and Towns.

There are also villages (no, not teabaggistan).

[tdindy88]

Indiana has cities and towns, both are incorporated. Officially, 2,000 people is the threshold for a town becoming a city, though many towns above that line remain towns. The difference between the two is primarily the form of government, cities have a mayor and a city council while towns just have the town council. There's only one first class city by law, that being Indianapolis, with second class cities ranging in population from 30,000 to 600,000 and third class cities being any city below 30,000. Ultimately, I believe, the class structure of cities help determine how many council members that city can have, Indy being the odd one with 25 seats (part of its first class privilege I guess.)

Unincorporated areas are under the prevue of counties and townships with each providing a certain set of services. The township has their own trustee who does certain things and will typically provide fire protection and maybe schools (although school districts are their own jurisdiction) while counties provide the main stuff like roads, police and regular county services. Marion County of course is unique where the municipal government and the county government are one in the same. In fact, the mayor of Indianapolis is voted for from everyone in the county, regardless of whether or not you actually live in Indianapolis. For instance, in Lawrence you vote for your own mayor and for Indianapolis' mayor since they serve as the county executive. While the county has one main police force, the fire protection is provided by three separate townships with the rest of the county being served by Indianapolis FD. And the schools are served by a central Indianapolis Public School District plus eight township school districts and two smaller town school districts.

[cpzilliacus]

Cities and towns also do not share the same level of sovereign immunity (i.e., immunity from being sued) that counties do. Counties are, for most purposes, an extension of the Commonwealth and share the state government's sovereign immunity (subject to certain exceptions). Cities and towns are not such extensions.

Years ago, before e-mail and FAX and the like, I would get paper communications from Fairfax County, Virginia sometimes. 

Back then, on the county's official letterhead, it would say (in smaller letters on the top line):

Commonwealth of Virginia

And just below, in large and bolder type:

County of Fairfax

Always wondered why, since counties in Maryland never have put the name of the state above the county (it would usually say something like "Frederick County, Maryland"). 

But your explanation above probably answers the question, though in poking around on the county Web site, it seems that the Commonwealth of Virginia has been removed from the digital letterhead.

[empirestate]

For the U.S.: http://www.census.gov/geo/reference/pdfs/guidestloc/All_GSLCG.pdf

[J N Winkler]

In Kansas all incorporated areas within counties are cities.  A city in Kansas can be a city of the first, second, or third class, in descending order of population minimum; a city of the first class has a population of over 15,000 and receives this rank on certification of said population to the Governor.  All cities in Kansas have some form of home rule, including the ability to pass ordinances with local validity and to handle certain types of cases in their own municipal courts (from which cases may be appealed to district court, which is typically staffed at the county level).  Any city may sue or be sued.  However, there are certain powers available to cities of the first class that are not available to cities of the other classes, such as the ability to have an art museum board if the population is over 200,000 (a provision that in practice applies only to Wichita; the board that operates under this power supervises the Wichita Art Museum).

The Kansas Statutes have multiple chapters dealing with city government.  Chapter 12 deals with general issues, while Chapters 13-15 deal with cities of the first through third classes respectively.

http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/statute/

Kansas law also allows the formation of township boards, which can take over county roads that would otherwise be administered by the county under what in Kansas law is called the "county unit road system."  In general, provision of club goods in unincorporated areas of the state is the responsibility of improvement districts of various type whose establishment and taxing powers are fixed elsewhere in the Kansas statutes.

In neighboring Nebraska, metropolitan cities (such as Omaha) are not allowed to annex across county lines because they have certain planning powers that can be exercised in respect of only one county.  There is no similar anomaly in Kansas since cities can and do annex across county lines without difficulty (Manhattan, for example, extends into both Riley and Pottawatomie Counties).  In practice, granularity down to parcel level is permitted in Kansas, which allows roadways to remain within unincorporated land while the territory on either side is part of one or more cities.  Noncontiguous annexation is discouraged and often impossible if there is resistance in the territory to be annexed (the Bel Aire annexation controversy of the 1980's is usually cited in this regard), but is not completely forbidden, so Wichita (e.g.) has one exclave in rural Sedgwick County north of Benton that is a solid five miles away from the rest of the city.  (This area is farmland, but I believe it was incorporated within the city limits as part of a controversial and long-aborted plan to build a new landfill.  It is within three miles of the unincorporated community of Furley and, in its heyday, the landfill plan was known locally as the "Furley concept" or just "Furley.")

[empirestate]

I know I'm grave-robbing this thread, but it's a topic that always interests me. It just so happens I've been working on a series of maps showing the different municipality types and civil divisions for each state, and I wanted to share my first fully-finished edition, this one covering the relatively-straightforward state of Wyoming.

Wyoming has no minor civil divisions and only two types of municipalities: towns and cities. The default term for a newly-incorporated muni is "town"; the current threshold is 200 pop. at a density of 70/sq mi.

At a population of 4,000, when certified to the governor, the town is declared a "city of the first class". No other classes of "city" are currently defined by statute, but the state constitution allows for the creation of up to four classes. State law does define the term "any city or town" to mean any incorporated municipality, I suppose to cover any smaller munis that go by the name of "city" or older forms of government that are grandfathered, but in essence everything that's not a first-class city is a town.

One town, Jackson, has reached the threshold for first-class status, but voted to retain a town form of government. (I'm not sure if they actually certified for the status or not.) This is possible because the constitution allows local governments to self-exempt from certain statutes pertaining to them, and generally provides for a liberal application of home-rule principles to towns and cities.

Here's the map; feedback or corrections are welcome!

http://empirestateroads.com/maps/Wyoming.png <–click the link, not the image (also posted there as a .pdf)


EDIT: The map has been updated with the Indian reservation, waterbody names and improved label placement.

Look for Wisconsin next. :-)


iPhone

[froggie]

Since Vermont got mentioned, but the original commenter did not get it right, here's how Vermont works:

County:  While there is no county level of government, there are some governmental functions that are handled at the county level, specifically regional planning, courts, and law enforcement for courts and those towns within the county that do not have their own police force or contract out to an adjacent town (my town does this) or the State Police (my wife's hometown does this).  The county may also handle governmental functions for any gores, grants, or unincorporated towns within the county's borders.  Most of these are in Essex County, but Chittenden, Windham, and Bennington Counties all have at least one such area.  While not zero, the combined population in these areas is extremely small...less than 100.

The equivalent of the county seat in Vermont is the "Shire Town".  This is a town or city within the county that houses the governmental functions that may exist in that county.  Bennington County is notable in having two...Bennington and Manchester.

Town:  The basic unit of government in Vermont, similar to other New England towns.  There are 237 towns in Vermont.  Towns are governed by a board of selectmen (also called selectboard members) who are voted in by citizens of the town at Town Meeting (historically the first Tuesday of March, but some towns have shifted that to weekends or evenings around that same week).  Some towns may have an elected or appointed Town Clerk or Town Manager that handles the day-to-day operations of the town (our town has a Town Clerk).

City:  There are 9 cities in Vermont, listed here in order of population:  Burlington, South Burlington, Rutland, Barre, Montpelier, Winooski, St. Albans, Newport, and Vergennes (the oldest city in Vermont).  Cities are not part of a town...they're separate.  Aside from joint responsibilities with VTrans for state highway routes within the city, I have been unable thus far to find the differences between cities and towns, but I'm guessing there are some within state law somewhere.

Incorporated village:  There are 35 villages in Vermont that are incorporated.  Unlike cities, incorporated villages are still part of a town.  Like cities, incorporated villages may share road responsibilities with VTrans for state highway routes within the village (I know this is the case in Hardwick, Lyndonville, and St. Johnsbury, but is not the case in Barton).  There are 5 towns (Barton, Bennington, Cambridge, Derby, and Newbury) that have 2 incorporated villages within the town.

[SD Mapman]

Here's the map; feedback or corrections are welcome!

http://empirestateroads.com/maps/Wyoming.png <–click the link, not the image (also posted there as a .pdf)


iPhone

What about places like Alva and Aladdin, which have population signs and post offices but no census designation? Or what about the Airport Road CDP south of Worland (although that might be gone now, I couldn't find anything definitive on the matter) (yes, that is/was it's name)?

Other than those minor quibbles, it looks awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SD Mapman]

In SD, we're a little less straightforward than WY, as we have three classes of municipalities divided by population.

9-2-1.   Classes enumerated--Population groups. There shall be the following three classes of municipal corporations:
             (1)      Municipalities of the first class are municipal corporations with a population of five thousand and over;
             (2)      Municipalities of the second class are municipal corporations with a population between five hundred and five thousand;
             (3)      Municipalities of the third class are municipal corporations with a population of less than five hundred.

I don't think that there's a division between cities and towns (those are just names), but I couldn't find anything on that anywhere.

[roadman]

Massachusetts has towns and cities.  Counties still exist as well, but county government these days is only the courts, limited law enforcement functions (sheriff), and records keeping functions (i,e, registar of deeds).

Several towns still have named villages within them, but they are part of the town and have no independent government functions.

[NWI_Irish96]

Indiana is split into 92 counties.  All of those counties are split into townships.  County and township level governments maintian some level of jurisdiction, even in areas that are incorporated as cities or towns, with the exception of Indianapolis/Marion County which is a consolidated city-county government.

So, for example, I live within the incorporated limits of the city of Jeffersonville, but Jeffersonville Township and Clark County also have jurisdiction over me (plus the Greater Clark County school district).  It seems to me that townships, as they exist in Indiana, are really unnecessary.  Leave them on the maps if you want, for some geographical distinction, but there is no need for them as a governmental entity.

[noelbotevera]

PENNSYLVANIA

Despite being mentioned before, I'd like to get a little in depth.

Pennsylvania has 67 counties. Each county is split into cities, divided into five classes,  then the next step is borough, then the area is townships. Also, townships is what we pay taxes to and is our sort of local government (and counties are divided into townships), but don't really interfere with addresses and things. For example, I really live in Hamilton Township, and taxes go a nearby office, but very rarely will deliveries say this. Packages are addressed to my family, but the location is listed as Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Boroughs are the next part above that and have some more power. They can also be county seats (for example, Chambersburg is a borough and a county seat). Next is Third Class cities. They have a population of at least 50,000 or more (may be wrong), and less than 250,000 (may be wrong also). For example, Allentown. Second class cities are cities more than 250,001 and 499,999 people (Pittsburgh for example). First class is cities with more than 500,000 people (Philadelphia for example). I may be wrong with the facts though.