said by Gone:Actually, villages can be part of more than one town
And a town and an incorporated village can be exactly the same, and have the same government and boundaries. One example is Harrison, New York. By making the whole town an incorporated village, any other villages are pre-empted.
said by Gone:But you'd be surprised.
I wouldn't be, I grew up with it.
said by Gone:Seriously, the duplication is silly. Just get rid of the villages, they're a waste of money. To which, after one sees some of the silliness that exists in the US, one can't help but think how much more efficient the maritime provinces would be if they formed some sort of union.
But what you describe is specific to New York State, and even there, to a small part of New York's population. Most New Yorkers live in cities, and even of the ones in the towns, most live outside of incorporated villages.
To some extent there are similar issues in New Jersey and Michigan. Otherwise, local government in the US is reasonably rational.
Along the east coast BTW, town governments dominate in New England, county governments dominate in the south, but towns and counties share power in the mid-Atlantic states.