NACo Survey Shows Vast Differences Between Rural and Urban Counties

County governments provide essential public services and influence local economies in important ways. Counties have more than 230 million residents and serve vast areas of the United States not served by municipalities or other general-purpose local governments. Because they cover most of the national territory, counties play a critical role in American governance as federal programs are devolved to state and local levels. Devolution, however, does not ensure the availability of fiscal resources or local administrative capacity, and county governments face challenges to meet rising demands for public services.

Researchers at The Ohio State University and Colorado State University, in conjunction with the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), conducted a national survey to document the status of county governments in the new millennium. Responses came from 1,678 counties out of 2,700. County Government Survey: Changes and Challenges in the New Milliennium compares county governments in five key areas: public service provision, economic development, land-use planning, finances, and welfare reform. Survey findings are reported for three categories of counties: metropolitan, adjacent, and rural. Metropolitan counties contain or are located within regions that have large urban cores. Adjacent counties are nonmetropolitan counties located next to metropolitan counties. Rural counties are nonmetropolitan counties that are not adjacent to metropolitan counties and have relatively small or no urban population.

Major findings of the study include:

• The services provided most widely by county governments are law enforcement services (84 percent of counties), 911 emergency services (82 percent), senior citizen programs (57 percent), mental health services (53 percent), health clinic services (52 percent), emergency medical services (51 percent), and solid waste removal (51 percent). Rural governments are less likely than metropolitan governments to provide 16 of the 21 services documented in the survey.

• Fiscal stress is reported as an important problem by more than two-thirds of all county governments. Governments in 38 percent of rural counties, 31 percent of adjacent counties, and 24 percent of metropolitan counties report reduction in federal revenue as a very important problem. Declining local tax base is an important source of fiscal stress in 40 percent of rural counties, 31 percent of adjacent counties, but only 12 percent of metropolitan counties.

• Economic development activities are conducted by a majority (72 percent) of county governments, yet nonmetropolitan county governments are less likely than metropolitan governments to engage in economic development activities. Only 31 percent of rural counties and 39 percent of adjacent counties compared to 61 percent of metropolitan counties have an economic development professional on staff.

• Grant-seeking capacity is much lower in nonmetropolitan counties compared to metropolitan counties: 28 percent of rural counties and 51 percent of metropolitan counties have a grant writer on staff.

• Land-use planning, such as zoning and farmland preservation, is undertaken by a much higher percent of metropolitan counties than nonmetropolitan counties. Only 29 percent of rural counties and 39 percent of adjacent counties compared to 73 percent of metropolitan counties have a land-use planner on the county government staff.

• Administrative workload arising from devolution-related social program responsibilities is reported by the majority of county governments to have increased over the past three years. These programs include childcare, Medicaid, workforce training, and transportation.

• Welfare programs (TANF) are administered locally by 22 percent of the counties in the survey. Rural counties are much less likely to have implemented jobs programs in response to welfare reform, and when they do so, they are less successful than metropolitan counties in placing former welfare recipients in jobs.

• Use of the Internet for communicating with the public lags in nonmetropolitan counties. County governments in only 37 percent of rural counties and 55 percent of adjacent counties have a website for communicating with the public. In contrast, 85 percent of metropolitan county governments have websites.l

Editor’s Note: This article was excerpted from County Government Survey: Changes and Challenges in the new Milliennium. This report is available from NACo on the web at www.naco.org.

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