On County Govt

In comments to the previous post, Buffalog Craig gives some good reasons why we need county government. While I sympathize with the idea that the government that's closest to the people will be most responsive to their needs, I think comparing US government to the UK's is apples & oranges. Setting aside for a moment the EU, the UK has only three strata of domestic government - the national government (Parliament & cabinet), shire governments, and local governments. Our county government is akin to Britain's shires. There are no states in England, (although Scotland does have its own national parliament). In other words, they've already got one less stratum of government than we New Yorkers. Sure, Albany sucks, but what does the county do that Amherst can't? Every stratum of government in New York serves one major purpose: to tax us. Seems to me getting rid of one taxing legislature wouldn't be so bad.