Talk:Government of Massachusetts

message: I have deleted this text: After passage of the Home Rule Procedures Act of 1967, it is no longer possible for a municipality to adopt one of these plans. However, 14 cities still have Plan A, B, or E governments because they have not changed their form of government since then. Plans C, D, and F are no longer used.
I have also deleted this reference which was the basis and source for the deleted text: Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. "Massachusetts Communities Operating Under Home Rule Charters" (prepared and adopted under provisions of the Home Rule Amendment and M.G.L., c. 43B) 
Although the publication was prepared by a unit of Massachusetts Government, the preparer only read through Sections 3 and 4 of Article 89 of the Massachusetts Constitution amendments. Section 8 states: "Subject to the foregoing requirements, the general court may provide optional  plans of city or town organization and government under which an optional plan  may be adopted or abandoned by majority vote of the voters of the city or town  voting thereon at a city or town election;..." Those optional plans are the plans referred to in the article.
HL Menken 11:59 28 October 2008  —Preceding unsigned comment added by HL Menken (talk • contribs) 04:00, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Deleted some text

message: Hello, Massachusetts! To defuse the edit war that has started at :Category:County government in the United States, I'd appreciate some additional input on the topic of whether U.S. counties are (1) a level of local government or (2) an arm of state government. Discussion thus far is on my User talk page at User_talk:Orlady#County_government, but we could move it to a content-oriented talk page if desired. --Orlady (talk) 00:28, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello MA. I am the other side of the edit war. My claim is that although county officials may be elected or appointed locally (i.e. not statewide), the actual county government itself is an arm of the state government. This is consistent with the powers they exercise (elections, law enforcement, etc.). If we could have some academically informed input, I would appreciate it, because the general impression and intuition that people have is that county government is "local government," but to those who actually study political science formally, the difference is known. The compromise that I propose is the persons should be categorized under "local politicians" while the offices should be categorized under "state government." Greg Bard (talk) 8:39 pm, Today (UTC−4)
I have posted this issue to WikiProject United States, and WikiProject Politics. Please take your input to one or the other so I don't have to have 50 discussions. Greg Bard (talk) 01:26, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: User:Gregbard started discussion of this matter at User_talk:Orlady#County_government. Please don't start a whole new discussion at some WikiProject page. If there is a desire to move the discussion, let's copy the pre-existing discussion to the new location. --Orlady (talk) 02:24, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  County government in the United States 

message: Could we consider revising and/or expanding the statement regarding money sent with students who transfer to charter schools? It's over-simplified. For example, if a student were to transfer to another public district before October 1st, the per-pupil amount would move with the student in that case as well; students who go to private schools cause the district to lose that money from the state; public voc-tech schools have the same effect. I can find a citation or two to support a more detailed answer. Rjp422 (talk) 00:29, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Charter schools