Origins of Township Government The term “township” is derived in part from an ancient English word “tun,” meaning the wall around a permanent settlement that over time became associated with the space within the wall; and ship, from the Anglo-Saxon word “scip,” which means shape. “Township” means the shape of the town or the entire bounds of the town. Community development expert Kenneth VerBurg, writing in Managing the Modern Michigan Township, cites the general consensus of historians that New England settlers were driven by local conditions and the English system of government most familiar to them to develop “small, compact communities and a government to go with them.” The dominant characteristic of New England town government is the annual meeting, where residents or “electors” gather to vote on the amount of taxation on the value of their properties, a budget, and other governmental matters. In New England, county government evolved as an administrative arm of state government rather instead of delivering the local government services that were provided by the towns. Resulting from the opening of the Erie Canal, Michigan’s early settlers were primarily from New York, and that state’s governmental system heavily influenced the structure of local government that developed in Michigan. A struggle between town government advocates and county government supporters led to a compromise that county governments would be governed by a board of supervisors, with each township supervisor being a member. This relationship between townships and counties existed in Michigan until changed by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and in 1968 in all counties the board of supervisors was replaced by a county board of commissioners elected from districts based on population.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 14:50:20 +0000
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