Administrative Divisions of New York - County

County

The county is the primary administrative division of New York. There are sixty-two counties in the state. Five of the counties are boroughs of the city of New York and do not have functioning county governments. While originally created as subdivisions of the state meant to carry out state functions, counties are now considered municipal corporations with the power and fiscal capacity to provide an array of local government services. Such services generally include law enforcement and public safety, social and health services (such as Medicaid), and education (special needs and community colleges).

Every county outside of New York City has a county seat, which is the location of county government.

A majority of New York's counties operate under the general provisions of the County Law. Nineteen counties have County Charters. Although all counties have a certain latitude to govern themselves, "charter counties" are afforded greater home rule powers. The charter counties are Albany, Broome, Chautauqua, Chemung, Dutchess, Erie, Herkimer, Monroe, Nassau, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Putnam, Rensselaer, Rockland, Schenectady, Suffolk, Tompkins, and Westchester.

In some counties, the legislature is the Board of Supervisors, composed of town and city supervisors of its constituent towns and cities. In most of these counties, each supervisor's vote is weighted in accordance with the town's population in order to abide by the principle of "one person, one vote". Other counties have legislative districts of equal population which may cross municipal borders, these counties also have an elected County Executive. Some counties do not use the term "Board of Supervisors", but instead call their legislative body "Board of Representatives", "Board of Legislators," or "County Legislature".

In non-charter counties, the legislative body exercises executive power as well. Although the legislature can delegate certain functions and duties to a county administrator, who acts on behalf of the legislature, the legislature must maintain ultimate control over the actions of the administrator. Many, but not all, charter counties have an elected executive who is independent of the legislature; the exact form of government is defined in the County Charter.