What is township

They are not directly involved in the assessment process and merely function as township advocates. It should also be noted that Cook County is assessed on a tri-annual basis.

The assessor's office assesses the northern part of Cook County in the first year, the southern parts in the second year, and the City of Chicago in the third year. B They maintain roads and bridges: Township governments maintain 71, miles of road in Illinois.

This is another area where Cook County is unique. At times roads and bridges are maintained directly by the municipality they fall in; other times, the municipality is paid by the county to maintain them. Maintenance of some roads and bridges is controlled directly by the State of Illinois and the task is handled by the Illinois Department of Transportation or the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

Which governmental entity handles road and bridge maintenance in Cook County depends on a variety of factors. When municipalities annex land, they also annex the surrounding right of ways. When this occurs, the annexing municipality is usually responsible for that road or bridge, but again, this is not always the case. Alternatively, there could be situations in which one governmental entity owns the right of way over land but pays another entity to maintain it.

For instance, the State of Illinois could pay the Cook County Highway Department to maintain a set of state-owned roadways. There are also differences in the taxing process. While most Cook County townships levy a tax for road and bridge maintenance, not all of them do.

C They provide financial assistance under the General Assistance GA Program: The GA program gives temporary financial assistance to qualifying residents and families to provide basic amenities.

Townships are located within counties and are smaller in size. For instance, Cook County contains 38 townships. Cities are located in townships and are generally smaller in size. The City of Chicago is an exception. In some instances, a city sits in multiple townships 1.

For example, the city of Naperville is so large that it extends is located in both DuPage and Will counties. The functions that a township carries out are delegated to it by the larger county or city in which it is located. This delegation of duties takes place so smaller areas within a large city or county can receive more targeted attention.

A township may even be dissolved if its functions are identical to those that a city or county government also performs. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of township. Kids Definition of township. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Love words? Need even more definitions? Abercrombie—a township in the parish of Abercrombie and county of Somerset.

Summerleas—a township in the parish of Kingborough and county of Buckingham. New Word List Word List. Save This Word! See synonyms for township on Thesaurus. Michigan has created charter townships as a separate type of government to allow greater flexibility for township governments to serve urbanized populations. The count of 16, organized township governments does not include unorganized township areas where the township may exist in name only, but has no organized government or where the townships are coextensive with cities and the cities have absorbed the township functions.

It also does not include townships in Iowa , which are not separate governments, but are classified as subordinate agencies of county governments. Of the 16, town or township governments, only 1, 7. There was a decline in the number of town or township governments from 16, in to 16, in Nearly all of the decline involved townships in the Midwest. Because township government is defined by each state, the use of this form also varies by state.

States using a township form include:. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. What's on your ballot? Jump to: navigation , search.

The term is used in two ways.