[1] Ohio law defines a structure for county government, although they may adopt charters for home rule.
[13] A tenth county, Wayne, was established on August 15, 1796, and encompassed most of Northwest Ohio.
Municipalities are defined in section 703.01(A) of the Ohio Revised Code: Municipal corporations, which, at the last federal census, had a population of five thousand or more, or five thousand registered resident electors or resident voters as provided in section 703.011 of the Revised Code, are cities.
[1] Since 1992, in order to incorporate as a city, the territory to be incorporated must meet the following conditions per section 707.29 of the Ohio Revised Code: Municipalities have full home rule powers, may adopt a charter, ordinances and resolutions for self-government.
Not all municipalities levy income taxes; those that do range from 0.3% in the Village of Indian Hill to 3.0% in Parma Heights.
There are more than 1,000 townships in Ohio, ranging from the very small with only a few hundred inhabitants (e.g. Washington in Warren County) to gigantic townships with tens of thousands of residents and bigger than most cities of the state (e.g. Colerain and West Chester).
[24] Chapter 504 of the Ohio Revised Code outlines the procedures for adopting limited home rule governments: Townships with 2,500 to 5,000 residents in an unincorporated territory may adopt a limited home rule government upon petition of voters, after meeting certain conditions and holding a referendum.
[25] Townships with 15,000 or more population in their unincorporated area may adopt limited home-rule government powers, upon petition of voters or by a majority vote by the board of township trustees, then holding a referendum; such townships may also adopt limited home-rule government powers by unanimous vote of the trustees, subject to a petition by voters to place the question on the ballot for approval or rejection.
In 1914, the Ohio General Assembly created county boards of education to provide support services to local school districts.
[30] Each ESC is supervised by a locally elected governing board and headed by a superintendent.
[30] On average 23.51% of an ESC's funding is provided by the state, 8.75% federal, 3.13% other, and 64.61% is generated through fee-for-service contracts with customer school districts.