Administrative divisions of Wisconsin

The administrative divisions of Wisconsin include counties, cities, villages and towns.

Law enforcement and road maintenance are also administered by the county, in conjunction with local municipalities.

It provides almost all services to its residents and has the highest degree of home rule and taxing jurisdiction of all municipalities.

[1] The home rule authority granted to cities allows them to make their own decision about their affairs, administration and much of their public policy, subject to state law.

Cities may also, by their discretion, have an engineer, comptroller, assessors, street commissioner, and a board of public works.

It provides various services to its residents and has a degree of home rule and taxing jurisdiction over them.

The home rule authority granted to villages allows them to make their own decisions about their affairs, administration and much of their public policy, subject to state law.

The U.S. Census Bureau considers Wisconsin towns to be minor civil divisions.

In southern Wisconsin, towns are often co-terminous with survey townships, which were established to plat land.

In Wisconsin, the grid system is based on a Point of Beginning (POB) created by surveyor Lucius Lyon in 1831 near Hazel Green, Wisconsin (the Fourth Principal Meridian) and used the Illinois boundary for a baseline.

Development based on this grid system can be seen on maps today as the major through streets, such as those in Milwaukee, which coincide with boundary intersections.

Lyon's POB is observed by a Wisconsin Historical Marker and a reset surveyor's monument.

[7] Towns are the only unit of government that allows residents to direct decision by voting at local meetings.

[4] The most populous town in Wisconsin is Grand Chute which has the services, taxes, and urban character that are typically found in cities.

They serve as useful local reference to specific places and are sometimes included in vital records.

[8] Many of these named places contain a small cluster of houses, a church or local business such as store or tavern.

Although they do not have any governmental function, most are recognized for the common usage and are marked with official green informational highway signs listing the place name with the word 'Unincorporated' underneath.

[10] These special units of government are created to address issues that are regional in nature, and sometimes to bypass the limits on debt that each municipality may have.

[10] The baseball district built, operates and manages the stadium used by the Milwaukee Brewers.

The tax was in effect in the counties of Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington and Waukesha[10] from 1996 to 2020.

[11] The football district issued bonds to renovate the stadium used by the Green Bay Packers.