Thursday, July 30, 2009
Discretionary Authority of Local Governments
5:14 PM | 
Posted by
David Boston
Since most urban planners work for cities or regional planning authorities, it is important to understand how much discretionary authority a municipality has in relation to their state legislature. You can figure out roughly how much discretionary authority your municipality has by paying attention to four different factors, courtesy of Joseph Zimmerman and weighed by importance by David Miller. Keep in mind that these factors usually vary more from state to state, not from municipality to municipality within the same state.
The following factors are listed in order of importance when determining discretionary authority of a local government:
- Finance: the degree to which a local government can raise revenues necessary to support the functions it has decided to undertake.
- Function: the ability of a local government to choose activities or functions it wishes to undertake.
- Personnel: the ability of a local government to regulate and determine the makeup and responsibilities of its workforce.
- Structure: the degree to which a local government can define its own organizational structure.
Keep in mind that a high level of discretionary authority held by local governments is not necessarily good or bad by itself. It is simply a way of measuring where the power lies. The things that can be viewed as either good or bad are the actions which either the state or municipal government decide to take with that previously mentioned power.
Thanks for reading.
- David
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- David Boston
- I graduated from the University of North Florida with a BA in Political Science, double-minoring in Public Administration and Urban & Metropolitan Studies. Starting in the Fall of 2010, I'll be pursuing a Master's degree in Urban Studies and Planning from the University of Maryland - College Park.
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