Special districts are in charge of a specific service, such as water districts and school districts. They are created to provide a specific function that is not part of the regular municipal government services. The article goes into detail, explaining that special districts have recently become more prevalent because they can be used in place of local taxes when people are less interested in paying taxes for general fund budgets. This allows elected officials to make up the difference with other funding sources, like district assessments. There can also be cases where multiple special districts overlap each other's boundaries or there may not be enough revenue generated by the district to cover all expenses.
