Georgia (U.S. state)

===Local government===
{{Further|List of counties in Georgia|List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state){{!}}List of municipalities in Georgia}}

Georgia consists of 159 [[County (United States)|counties]], second only to Texas, with 254.<ref>[http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/countyhistory.htm A Brief History of Georgia Counties]. Retrieved December 30, 2007. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102173430/http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/countyhistory.htm |date=November 2, 2007}}</ref> Georgia had 161 counties until the end of 1931, when [[Milton County, Georgia|Milton]] and [[Campbell County, Georgia|Campbell]] were merged into the existing [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton]]. Some counties have been named for prominent figures in both American and Georgian history, and many bear names with Native American origin. Counties in Georgia have their own elected legislative branch, usually called the Board of Commissioners, which usually also has executive authority in the county.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/GovernmentPolitics/Government/LocalGovernment&id=h-589 |title=Georgia's County Governments |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=June 5, 2014 |access-date=July 27, 2014 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117103138/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FGovernmentPolitics%2FGovernment%2FLocalGovernment&id=h-589 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Several counties have a [[sole Commissioner]] form of government, with legislative and executive authority vested in a single person. Georgia is the only state with current Sole Commissioner counties. Georgia's Constitution provides all counties and cities with "[[Home rule in the United States|home rule]]" authority. The county commissions have considerable power to pass legislation within their county, as a municipality would.

Georgia recognizes all local units of government as cities, so every incorporated town is legally a city. Georgia does not provide for [[township (United States)|townships]] or [[Independent city (United States)|independent cities]], though there have been bills proposed in the Legislature to provide for townships;<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/townships-proposed-alternative-cities-georgia/dfcmwWT2xD3iTRxtAxA65I/ | title=Townships proposed as an alternative to cities in Georgia | work=Atlanta Journal-Constitution | date=January 21, 2016 | access-date=June 4, 2021 | author=Niesse, Mark | archive-date=June 4, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604192911/https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/townships-proposed-alternative-cities-georgia/dfcmwWT2xD3iTRxtAxA65I/ | url-status=live }}</ref> it does allow [[consolidated city-county]] governments by local [[referendum]]. All of Georgia's second-tier cities except [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] have now formed consolidated city-county governments by referendum: [[Columbus, Georgia|Columbus]] (in 1970), [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]] (1990), [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]] (1995), and [[Macon, Georgia|Macon]] (2012). (Augusta and Athens have excluded one or more small, incorporated towns within their consolidated boundaries; Columbus and Macon eventually absorbed all smaller incorporated entities within their consolidated boundaries.) The small town of [[Cusseta, Georgia|Cusseta]] adopted a consolidated city-county government after it merged with unincorporated [[Chattahoochee County, Georgia|Chattahoochee County]] in 2003. Three years later, in 2006, the town of [[Georgetown, Quitman County, Georgia|Georgetown]] consolidated with the rest of [[Quitman County, Georgia|Quitman County]].

There is no true [[metropolitan government]] in Georgia, though the [[Atlanta Regional Commission]] (ARC) and [[Georgia Regional Transportation Authority]] do provide some services, and the ARC must approve all major [[land development]] projects in the [[Atlanta metropolitan area]]. {{Citation needed|reason=This paragraph has 0 citations|date=February 2022}}