• Cartoon: "Thadeus & Weez -- School District Property Tax" by Charles Pugsley Fincher (56)
  
  
• Overview of Grassroots Problems (57)
  
  
• Municipal Governments (58)
  • Legal Status of Municipalities (58)
  • Forms of Municipal Government (58)
    • Strong Mayor-Council (59)
    • Weak Mayor-Council (59)
      • Figure 3.1 Strong Mayor-Council Form: City of Houston (60)
      • Photo: Houston Mayor Lee Brown chats with Karen Pernell . . . (61)
    • Commission (61)
    • Council-Manager (62)
  • Municipal Politics (62)
    • Figure 3.2 Council-Manager Form: City of Dallas (63)
  • Municipal Services (64)
  • Municipal Government Revenue (64)
    • Taxes (64)
    • Fees (65)
    • Bonds (65)
  • Recent Developments (65)
    • Tax reinvestment zones (65)
    • Property tax issue (66)
  
  
• Counties (67)
  • Structure and Operation (67)
    • Commissioners court (68)
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    • County clerk and county tax assessor-collector (69)
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    • County surveyor (70)
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  • County Finance (70)
    • Taxation (70)
    • Revenue from nontax sources (71)
    • Expenditures (71)
  • County Governent Reform (72)
    • Ordinance-making power (72)
    • County chief executive (72)
    • County road system (72)
  
  
• Special Districts (72)
  • Public School Districts (73)
  • Junior or Community College Districts (73)
  • Nonschool Districts (74)
    • Table 3.1 Texas Public Community (Junior) College Districts: Ten Top Enrollments and State Funding (74)
  • The Politics of Special Districts (75)
  
  
• Metropolitan Areas (75)
  • Councils of Governments (75)
  • Stopgap Approaches (76)
    • Municipal annexation (76)
    • Intergovernmental contracting (77)
    • New districts (77)
  
  
• Looking Ahead (77)
  
  
• Notes (77)
  
  
• Key Terms and Concepts (78)
  
  
• Selected Reading: "Contractual Friendships" by Bob Sablatura (79)
  • Legalized Bribery? (79)
    • Table 1 Greasing the Political Machine (80)
  • Contracting for Professional Services (80)
  • Bond Issues (81)
  • Quid Pro Quo (82)