Municipal Government and Special-Purpose Authorities

• Author: Annette Baker Fox,William T.R. Fox
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624020700123
• Published date: 01 January 1940
• Date: 01 January 1940
• Published By: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Subject Matter: Articles

176

Municipal

Government

and

Special-Purpose

Authorities

By

WILLIAM

T.

R.

FOX

and

ANNETTE

BAKER

FOX

NICE

again

municipal

government

V is

meeting

new

demands

by

piece-

meal

adaptations

of

old

forms.

To

the

student

of

public

administration

preach-

ing

the

virtues

of

integration,

this

must

seem

a

backward

step.

Like

the

Port

of

London

Authority

from

which

their

name

is

derived,

the

new

authorities

which

have

been

created

lack

the

inde-

pendent

tax-levying

powers

of

the

older

units;

they

finance

themselves

through

the

power

to

borrow

against

anticipated

revenues.

The

recent

increase

in

the

birth

rate

of

special

public

corporations

on

the

municipal

level

has

redirected

attention

to

those

extra

layers

of

government

in

the

larger

urban

areas

whose

jurisdiction

includes

(and

may

extend

beyond)

the

area

of

the

central

municipality.

The

Bureau

of

the

Census

lists

such

units

for

sixty-two

out

of

the

ninety-four

largest

cities

in

its

1936

Financial

Statistics

of

f

Cities.

Most

widespread

and

in

many

cases

most

ancient

is

the

independent

school

district,

which

in

ninety-nine

of

the

191

cities

with

population

of

50,000

or

more

has

undivided

control

over

its

own

budget.

Newest

is

the

housing

authority,

which

has

been

set

up

in

229

communities,

including

twelve

out

of

the

fourteen

largest

cities.

Of

the

175,-

000

independent

units

enumerated

by

William

Anderson

in

his

Units

of

Gov-

ernment

in

the

United

States,

very

few

are

in

the

category

treated

here.

Yet

each

affects

the

lives

of

thousands

and

in

some

cases

millions

of

persons.

Table

1

includes

sixty-one

in

the

twenty-six

largest

cities.

MOTIVES

FOR

SEPARATE

INCORPORATION

The

earliest

justification

for

such

units

was

that

the

new

function

had

to

be

kept &dquo;free&dquo;

of

politics

and

politi-

cians ;

so

separately

incorporated

school

districts

were

created.

Similarly,

the

transfer

of

the

earlier

private

corpora-

tion

or

association

libraries

to

public

auspices

was

achieved

with

the

under-

standing

that

they

remain

&dquo;out

of

poli-

tics&dquo;

and

therefore

independent.

Where,

as

with

Philadelphia

and

Pittsburgh,

the

boards

are

partly

or

wholly

self-perpetu-

ating,

the

special

unit

may

be

freed

not

only

from

politics

but

from

any

form

of

public

control.’

True

or

false,

belief

in

the

efficacy

of

independence

persists

and

was

used

among

other

arguments

to

justify

the

independence

of

the

housing

authority.

Proponents

of

any

new

governmental

function,

both

lay

and

expert,

tend

to

favor

independence

because

it

frees

them

from

making

administrative

or

political

concessions

necessary

in

an

integrated

administration.

Legal

independence

is

not,

however,

certain

to

prevent

political

pressure.

With

regard

to

education,

Henry

and

Kerwin

found

indications

that

application

of

such

pressure

was

just

as

frequent

in

the

case

of

inde-

pendent

schools

as

in

others.’

2

In

fact,

an

intensive

study

of

the

Chicago

school

system’s

relations

with

the

municipal

government

showed

that

in

the

absence

of

legal

integration,

&dquo;the

stage

is

set

and

will

continue

to

be

set

for

integration

under

other

auspices-those

of

machine

politicians

and

the

financial

overlords.&dquo;

3

State

political

bosses

have

sometimes

1

Carleton

Bruns

Joeckel,

The

Government

of

American

Public

Libraries

(Chicago:

Uni-

versity

of

Chicago

Press,

1935),

pp.

89-90,

180-81.

2

Nelson

B. Henry

and

Jerome

G.

Kerwin,

Schools

and

City

Government

(Chicago:

Uni-

versity

of

Chicago

Press,

1938),

pp.

92-93.

3

John

A.

Vieg,

The

Government

of

Educa-

tion

in

Metropolitan

Chicago

(Chicago:

Uni-

versity

of

Chicago

Press,

1939),

p.

255.

at SAGE PUBLICATIONS on November 29, 2012ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from