What Is a Special Purpose District?

MRSC's Usage

"Special purpose district" is a generic term that encompasses many different types of local governments.

MRSC uses the term broadly to refer to any local government that is not a city, town, or county. This includes:

• Cemetery districts
• Conservation districts
• Fire protection districts and regional fire authorities
• Irrigation districts
• Library districts
• Mosquito control districts
• Park and recreation districts
• Port districts
• Public hospital districts (PHDs)
• Public transportation benefit areas (PTBAs) and other transit districts
• Public utility districts (PUDs)
• School districts
• Water-sewer districts
• And many others

These districts exist to perform a limited number of specialized functions, as opposed to cities, towns, and counties that perform a wide range of "general purpose" functions.

Many special purpose districts have independent governing bodies and are overseen by elected commissioners, supervisors, or directors. Others are governed by appointed officials or trustees, and some are overseen by other officials (such as the board of county commissioners or city/town council) acting in an ex officio role.

Other Definitions

There is no single, overarching definition of the term "special purpose district" in state law, and each type of district must follow the statutes applicable to it – for example, Title 52 RCW for fire protection districts, Title 57 RCW for water-sewer districts, chapter 35.61 RCW for metropolitan park districts, etc.

However, "special purpose district" is defined within a few specific contexts. For example, RCW 36.96.010 regarding the dissolution of inactive special purpose districts and RCW 43.09.230 regarding unauditable special purpose districts both define the term generally (with some exceptions) to include every municipal or quasi-municipal corporation other than counties, cities, or towns.

In the context of other statutes, various special purpose districts may (or may not) be covered by other terms such as agency, local government, body corporate, municipal corporation, municipality, quasi-municipal corporation, political subdivision, taxing district, etc. Always consult the specific definitions for any given statute or chapter.

Also see the Matrix of Terms Categorizing Local Government Entities in Washington State, prepared by Alicia Feichtmeir of Foster Pepper PLLC (now Foster Garvey PC), Appendix to A Local Government By Any Other Name, by Hugh Spitzer, Proceedings of the Washington State Municipal Attorneys, Fall 2009.

The U.S. Census Bureau Government Organization & Structure Glossary provides a similar definition of "special district government," except that it addresses school districts separately and does not consider them to be special districts:

Special district governments

Organized local entities other than county, municipal, township or school district governments. Special districts are authorized by state law to provide only one or a limited number of designated functions, and with sufficient administrative and fiscal autonomy to qualify as separate governments; includes a variety of titles; such as, districts, authorities, boards, commissions, etc., as specified in the enabling state legislation.

How Many Special Purpose Districts Are There in Washington?

It can be difficult to determine the precise number of special purpose districts in the state at any given time. Unlike cities, towns, and counties which are fairly static in name and number, special purpose districts change with some frequency. New districts are formed and existing districts merge, change names, operate with DBA's ("doing business as" names), are assumed by cities/counties, become inactive, or are formally dissolved.

In addition, some sources may use different criteria, such as only counting districts that have independent governing bodies.

State Auditor's Office Data

Perhaps the best source of statewide data is the State Auditor's Office (SAO). State law requires SAO to be notified of the formation and dissolution of special purpose districts, and all local governments are required by state law to submit an annual financial report to SAO.

SAO makes recent annual financial report data available through its Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT), where users can browse by government type.

According to FIT, there were almost 2,200 active local government entities with online filing data as of the Fiscal Year 2023 report year, including school districts. Excluding cities, towns, and counties, that leaves over 1,800 special purpose districts with online filing data.

U.S. Census Bureau Data

The U.S. Census Bureau Census of Governments also provides a report on the number of governments every five years, in years ending with -2 and -7. According to the 2022 report, there are 1,570 special purpose districts (adding together "special district governments" and school districts).

However, some local government agencies that might be considered to be special purpose districts by MRSC or under state law are not considered "special district governments" by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau considers some local government entities that are governed partly or entirely by appointed or ex officio officers to be "subordinate agencies and areas" and does not count them as independent special purpose districts, which accounts for the difference between the Census numbers and SAO's figures.

These "subordinate agencies and areas" include conservation districts, behavioral health organizations, park and recreation service areas, flood control districts, weed control districts, metropolitan park districts, and others.

For more information, see the U.S. Census Bureau's Individual State Descriptions: Washington (2022).