In Texas, each county is governed by a five-member Commissioners Court, which consists of a County Judge (elected at-large) and four Commissioners (elected from single-member precincts). The County Judge has no veto authority over the decisions of the Court; they have one vote along with the other Commissioners. In smaller counties, the County Judge also performs judicial functions, while in larger counties their role is limited to the Court. Elections are based on the political parties, Democrat, Republican, Independent and sometimes Libertarian. Counties do not have home rule authority because their authority is strictly limited by the State. Texas counties, merely exist to deliver specific types of services at the local level as prescribed by state law, but cannot enact or enforce local ordinances.
254 counties make up the state of Texas. The Dallas metropolitan area is much larger, and is one of the fastest growing in the country. The 12-county Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (DFW) metropolitan area has a population of 6,985,579 and is expected to be 7,960,117 by 2020 (Texas Population 2020 Projections, 2014). Nearly one million new residents in the DFW metropolitan area will cause more traffic congestion, the need for new jobs and more housing. People normally like to live closer to their employers, so the areas with the best jobs will see faster population growth. Cities and counties need to compete for companies much like they did with Toyota. Toyota moved their U.S.
Texas has a unique history among the states. Several countries have laid claim to the territory which now comprises it, and the state was briefly an independent republic before joining the union in 1845. Today it is known as a leader in job creation, energy production, a laissez-faire approach to economics, and sound public finances. The state is comprised of 254 counties, which is more than any other state. This means that government in Texas is quite decentralized. The state has no towns, townships, boroughs, or villages as local municipalities. Instead, Texans reside in either incorporated areas (local authority being a city) or an unincorporated one (in which case the local authority is a county). The state government incentivized efficiency
Texas is the second most populous state as well as the second largest state in the United States of America (Brown, Langenegger, Garcia, Lewis, & Biles, 2014). With a huge number of people currently calling Texas their home, it would make sense to draw the conclusion that the Texas government must make this state a great place to live by serving its citizens to the best of its abilities. However, it is best not to make assumptions and in order to ascertain whether the local government actually fulfills this role we must look at multiple aspects of the government.
In the executive branch of Texas, the top official is the Governor. Texas has what is called a plural executive, where the power is distributed among several elected officials as well as various boards and commissions. The plural executive consists of the Governor; lieutenant governor; secretary of state, who is appointed by the governor; attorney general; comptroller of public accounts; commissioner of the general land office; commissioner of agriculture and railroad commissioners, which include three
One example of these courts is the Commissioner's Court. The commissioner's court is defined as, "the legislative body that governs a Texas county." (The State of Texas, Government, Politics, and Policy, page 178) Despite the name, the commissioner's court is not a court system. It is actually a legislative body. Another important part of the judiciary branch of Texas government is the Sheriff. The county sheriff, in many cities, is the head of the police department and controls the county jail. This position is very important for these reasons and more. More examples include the district and county attorney, the county tax assessor/collector, the county and district clerk, the county treasurer, and the county
The two states of Texas and California have vastly different methods of taxation and they also differ in how they spend these taxes collected. In the past, many people packed up and moved out west to California because they saw it as the land of opportunity, but recently, this trend has changed as many individuals and businesses have been moving from California down to Texas. This is a relevant point to discuss because this movement has much to do with how California and Texas both tax their citizens. Texas prefers a regressive tax system, which taxes citizens by letting the taxes fall as the tax base increases, California implements the opposite method through more progressive taxes. While citizens may prefer Texas’s system of limited taxation, this also severely effects what services the government is able to provide to its citizens, which is why I would argue for slightly higher taxes so that Texas can obtain more benefits in the long run.
The Texas judicial system has been called one of the most complex in the United States, if not the world. It features five layers of courts, several instances of overlapping jurisdiction, and a bifurcated appellate system at the top level. The structure of the system is laid out in Article 5 of the Texas Constitution.
There are numerous varieties of election races in Texas. The state Constitution and the political society in Texas together have made a framework of our legal system that welcomes Texans to pick applicants for a great numerous public offices in all levels of the government inside the state. The Constitution needs direct election for different state offices inside the executive branch and inside the legal system of the judicial branch, likewise with respect to various county level offices. A few legislative activities oblige changing the Constitution, that also needs special established constitutional amendment elections. Numerous metropolitan and other local offices are filled
There are many ways that the Texas government differs from the federal system. The main way that they differed is the certain laws and they can pass. There’s certain things each department can do and the other one can’t. I believe that the Texas government another word for the constitution of Texas. Send me this basically means this is mainly for cities in Texas. Meanwhile while the federal system which is basically the US Constitution covers the whole world. Texas have their own government and all rules and regulations that they have to follow. The federal system is basically dividing of power between central national government and the local state government. The federal system focus on the larger countries. While Texas government mostly
The Texas Constitution separates the Texas state government into three different but equivalent branches: the Texas executive branch of government, led by the governor; the Texas judicial branch of government, which is made up of of the Texas Supreme Court and all the other state courts; and the Texas legislative branch of government, led by the Texas Legislature, which consists of the 31 members of the Texas senate and the 150 members of the house of
I was selected to write about the 29th District of Texas, which is located in the eastern portion of the greater Houston area. This entire district is located in Harris County. Pasadena, Humble, and Jacinto City are some of the largest cities in the district. The current population is 718,000 people which is a very large leap from the census before that, 653,000. This district is very diverse and is considered a major-minority district which means that the majority of the population is other races other than white.
When selecting judges in Texas many first get their start when they are initially appointed by the Texas governor. Though this usually happens to fill up any vacancies that there may be on the bench (Champagne and Harpham 257). Aside from being appointed by the governor, most judges in Texas get selected to serve by Texas voters. These elections are known as partisan elections, meaning that the judicial candidates’ political affiliation is listed on the ballot. Party affiliation is one of the most important factors in judicial elections. Before 1978, most judges were Democrats due to the state being largely Democratic. In addition, the governor of the state was usually a Democrat and would usually end up appointing Democratic judges (Champagne
At the County level, three types of courts exist, the first of them being Constitutional County Courts. The state constitution creates one Constitutional County Court in each of the 254 Texas Counties. Constitutional County Courts have concurrent jurisdiction with Justice of Peace Courts and State District Courts in small civil matters. Constitutional County Courts
According to 2002 Census of Government figures, Texas has 1,196 cities, 254 counties, 1,089 school districts, and 2,245 special districts. During the past 20 years, the num- ber of special districts has steadily increased, due mainly to the rapid creation of water districts in unincorporated areas. Conversely, the number of school districts has steadily de- clined, as smaller systems have consolidated with larger ones. The number of counties has remained constant for 100 years, while the number of cities is increasing at an av- erage of about 10 per year.
One unique feature about Texas’s system is the bifurcated appellate system. This means that there are two separate courts at the highest level, both of which have specific requirements to hear certain types of cases. The only other state that follows this type of structure for their judiciary system is Oklahoma. The following information about the structure and description of each level of the judiciary system is taken from the Texas Courts government sponsored website. Starting from the very top breaking down the structure level by level, the Texas Supreme Court, one of the two Texas Supreme courts, deals with civil issues and juvenile criminal cases. The other court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, hears cases that only deal with criminal activity not involving juveniles. In addition to these highest level courts, the Texas Judiciary has several levels that lead up to these two courts. The level right below the two Supreme Courts consists of fourteen Texas courts of appeals that have been created one by one since the creation of the judiciary system in 1836. Each of these
Summary: As the title indicates this is an article about the upcoming Tarrant County sheriff’s race, and how the primary contrasts two views on how the department should be run. The incumbent Dee Anderson’s position is that the sheriff’s focus should be on running the jail and highlights that his department has passed 15 consecutive annual state jail inspections, while overseeing 1600 employees, and managing a $120 million dollar budget. His challenger former police chief Bill Waybourn said that Anderson has been to been