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The Size and Breadth of Local Government
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The size of local governements and their economic impact is more vast then you might at first imagine.

A census of governments is taken every 5 years by the US Bureau of Census. In 1997 there were 87,504 government units. Subtract the Federal and State Governments and it boils down to 87,453 units of local government throughout the country. These are made up of:

  • 36,001 Municipal and Township Governments; Start with Western New York municipal governments.
  • 13,726 School District Governments; Start with Western New York school district governments
  • 34,683 Special District Governments (Authorities, Commissions, Boards) These are considered governments by the US Census, and should be analyzed thoroughly as "local" governments; Start with Western New York Authorities and commissions etc..

Some states are more prolific then others when creating local governments. A list of local governments by state shows that NY has 3,413. Illinois leads the country with 6,835 local governments while Hawaii is last with 19.

As for economic impact, Local government in 1997 - 1998 employed nearly 14.5 million people and had a total payroll of $41.4 billion dollars.
Is it a Government?
This isn't questionable meaning bad or unnecessary. The Federal Census Bureau considers governments to be:

"For Census Bureau statistical purposes, a government is defined as an organized entity subject to public accountability, whose officials are popularly elected or are appointed by public officials, and which has sufficient discretion in the management of its affairs to distinguish it as separate from the administrative structure of any other government unit. The Census Bureau recognizes five basic types of local governments: counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, and special districts."

2002 U.S. Census of Governments

Special districts then, by definition, would include water authrorities, state control boards, public authories which have been questioned recently by NYS Comptroller Alan Hevesi. In otherwords, even though these special districts might consider themselves independent operations, for our purposes here we'll consider them local governments.
According to the Census Bureau this is considered a local government. So we'll consider it one too, and report on the workings of the Public Authorities throughout New York.
What is Local Government?
The definition of local government should be simple. There's a fantastic site called wikipedia, which has definitions and information. But the real beauty of wikipedia is the power it displays in educating a reader. The links are endless. It's a model for what the FAIR site should become for government finances.

Here's a sample of their definitions of local government.

Local government of the United States refers to local government at the city, town, village, or civil township level within the United States of America.

In the more general sense, local government also refers to:

Almost all areas are covered by state governments, although special arrangements apply to the District of Columbia. With the exception of certain independent cities, all areas within states, excluding Massachusetts, whose counties have no administrative power, are included in county governments. Towns in the U.S. region of New England practice a form of direct democracy known as the New England town meeting.

Native American reservations are outside both state and county jurisdiction. In many states, Not all areas are covered by cities or townships; for these areas, the county fulfills all government functions below the level of the state.

During the Cold War, it was speculated by many that in the event of World War III, local governments would be among the few surviving government establishments and could form a base from which to establish a post-war reconstruction. This theory has led many to believe that a shadow government exists, in which the presidential line of succession contains provisions to extend to local authorities in the event of a wide scale and major war in which the federal and state governments are eradicated.

The term "local government" is often not used when describing the governments of major cities. Such establishments are said to maintain municipal governments.