A Position Statement:

Efficient Local Government
Township government is efficient government.

Experience shows that bigger is not always better, and certainly bigger is not always cheaper. Bigger governments are often more expensive, more bureaucratic and generally less accountable to and far removed from the people they are supposed to serve than the township system of local self-rule.

Pennsylvania townships are testament to the fact that government doesn’t have to be big to be efficient and that government doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective.

Despite the pressures placed on township officials by state and federal mandates, the township way of life is a simpler life. Townships live within their spending means, balancing budgets every single year — no exceptions. Townships only borrow money they can afford to pay back.

Low on expenses, high on services

Through their cooperative spirit and frugal spending habits, townships keep their operating expenses low. When it doesn’t make economic sense to own certain types of equipment, townships work out voluntary agreements with neighboring communities to share or jointly own that equipment. Also, townships often join together to bulk-purchase road salt and other supplies as part of their money-saving initiatives.

Where it makes sense and public sentiment supports it, township governments are forming areawide police departments.

Township government staffs are traditionally kept as small as possible. Many township supervisors have full-time jobs in addition to their duties as elected officials. Some townships appoint managers to serve as their chief administrative officer or delegate routine duties to the township secretary. Townships with small- to medium-size populations often operate with a small staff of a township manager or secretary and a few full- or part-time maintenance personnel. In some townships, supervisors may work full-time for the township, and in others, larger staffs serve the needs of the township’s larger population.

Staffing at township government reflects the needs and desires of the community, and very often, the employees live in the township they work for. Each township decides what structure best serves its citizens.

The "invisible" providers
Township officials serve citizens with little fanfare. In many ways, township governments are often invisible providers, quietly going about their jobs of supplying many of the basic necessities of modern life such as road maintenance, street lighting, and police and fire protection. These township officials are dependable, responsive providers. Township officials know what’s happening in their own backyard and strive to serve their neighbors’ needs quickly.

About PSATS
Since 1921, the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) has represented the interests of townships and has helped to shape laws that have laid the foundation for township and municipal government. Today, PSATS represents Pennsylvania’s 1,457 townships of the second class and some 10,000 elected township officials. With more than 4.6 million residents, townships represent more people than any other type of political subdivision in the commonwealth, including cities.