No, this isn’t a Goosebumps book! It’s what life actually might be like if all city services suddenly stopped. The city provides all of the services you just imagined doing without - water, garbage collection, public transportation, street repair, police protection and many others that you just don’t spend too much time thinking about. Maybe the reason you don’t think too much about city services is that they are done so well and efficiently that you just take them for granted. But, there’s always room for improvement. Here’s your chance to find out what city government is, how it works and why you should be involved.

Before you can know what city government is, you need to know what it is not. City government is not the government for the whole country, the United States of America. The government for the whole country is called the federal government, and it has three main branches - the executive, the legislative and the judicial. You already know something about the people who make up the federal government; the president and his cabinet are the executive branch; the senators and representatives in Congress are the legislative branch, and the Supreme Court is part of the judicial branch. Each branch has its own job, but they all work to make laws for the good of the whole country and to meet the needs that people have all over the country.

Our national highway system and our national parks system are examples of services that the federal government provides to the people of the United States. The federal government provides some services directly to the people, but more often it makes decisions.

Each state has powers to create its own programs to serve its citizens. Because each state is a little bit different from the others, the programs and services may vary from one state to the other.

Each state has its own government, too. Arizona has its own state government, which knows the people of Arizona and tries to meet their needs. The state of Arizona has a governor and a legislative body and a state supreme court (three branches, just like the federal government). People in Arizona need do things a little bit differently from people in Alaska because the weather is so different, or New Jersey where there is a limited amount of land for a large number of people. The state government can extend the laws made by the federal government to fit the needs of that particular state. Arizona might work on a law to save water; Alaska might work on a law to save endangered snow leopards; New Jersey might work on state public transit system.

The states can’t do everything, though. Most states are divided into counties, and county government meets the needs of people in that area of the state. Arizona has 15 counties, each one organized to meet the needs of the people who live there. County governments are like an arm of the state government; they help provide services the state government thinks are important. County governments spend most of their time and money providing health and welfare services such as county hospitals and clinics. They also spend a lot of time and money on transportation needs such as roads and bridges.

As you learn more about city government, you might notice that some services provided by city government and county government overlap. One of the jobs of county government is to work with cities located near one another and provide services that affect more than one city. County government also provides services to people who live in areas that are not within any particular city.

So what is city government? City government is the smallest, most local form of government. Cities have boundaries or city limits. States give cities the right to form governments to meet the needs of their citizens and to make laws for the people who live there. A city can form a government according to directions provided by the state - that’s called “general law.” Or a city can form a government of its own design - that’s called “home rule.” City government has the power to make laws on any issues not already decided by the state or federal government and has the power to fund and provide any services to the citizens living within its boundaries. However, local laws can’t break state or federal laws.

Really, all of this information about government is only important if you remember one thing - government doesn’t work without citizens. Citizens are people like you and the people you know – teachers, students, bankers, waiters, computer programmers, newspaper reporters, athletic trainers and grandparents. Citizens make government work by voting for people to represent them in city, county, state and federal government. Citizens also create their own organizations to take care of themselves and their community; government doesn’t do it all. From soup kitchens to little league coaches, citizens meet the needs in their own communities every day.

Last modified on 06/08/2006 14:53:45