http://www.cityofmilton-ga.org/default.aspx

Well, if the referendum on the 18 goes OK, the former county of Milton (which, along with Campbell County, was merged into Fulton – Georgia’s largest county – back in the 30’s for obvious financial reasons) will regain its independence (somewhat), but as a municipality.

For more on this, see the Wikipedia article.

More power to Milton. The county system (and its equivalents in other countries) runs counter to urban government, anyway.

Why?

Look at Warner Robins. It is the largest city in Houston County, and has annexed a bit of neighboring Peach County (as of 1997, actually). But expansion of the city’s borders are systematically opposed by residents who live in the county and outside of Warner Robins proper, due to taxes.

Taxes?

Yes. Living outside of the city, you’d have to pay only 3 tiers: federal, state, and county. Living inside the city, however, you’d have to pay 4 tiers: federal, state, county, and city.

But wait. Isn’t the city part of the county?

Nope. City has its own police, county has its own police. They only govern in their separate jurisdictions, and not anymore than that.

This is why, in many larger municipalities in the U.S. (and Canada), there has been a growing movement for municipalization of counties which are encompassed by an entire city, for the above tax reasons as well as making sure that governance in within the border is handled as easily as possible (rather than having to go through the rather obsolete county in between the city and the state). San Francisco has already done it (the “City and County of San Francisco” are one and the same government), as has Honolulu (which encompasses the entirety of the island of O’ahu, even though Hawai’i doesn’t have any municipal-level governments), and it has been debated for Atlanta-Fulton (even though it runs aground with the fact that [1] Atlanta also has a bit of DeKalb and [2] Atlanta would have to forego the rest of Fulton county, such as the aforementioned Milton and Campbell, since both of those, while part of Fulton, are not part of Atlanta).

If municipalization were taken even further, New York City could essentially be its own state, considering that its famed Five Boroughs (Queens, Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island) are also 5 of the 62 counties of New York State. So…..is it Albany or is it the City that is governing those boroughs/counties?

So its obvious that both the state and county systems are gradually, but surely, becoming obsolete as city and borough areas increase in both size and influence. More power to the future City of Milton from the folks in Houston County.