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Statutory Research Basics

Local

New York State Local Government

New York State has four different kinds of local governments that are considered municipalities: County, City, Town, and Village.

“There are 1,607 general purpose local governments in New York State, each with its own governing body and taxing authority... New York also houses many other special purposes governments and districts that impact a resident’s tax bill.”1 New York’s local governments include more than 4,200 taxing jurisdictions, some as large as counties and others as small as school or fire districts.2  

If you cannot find a local code online, you may need to contact the local government office directly, or visit a New York State Public Access Law Library to view the code in print.

Suffolk County

  • Suffolk County Legislature
    • You can find the Suffolk County administrative code, charter, new laws and index on this page. Additionally the homepage of the Suffolk County Legislature contains information regarding public hearings, programs, agendas and minutes, as well as a search function for the local code. 
    • You can find the Suffolk County Legislature here
  • Local Government Town Codes 
    • This site, provided by the Suffolk County library, provides links to Codes for the Towns of Babylon, Brookhaven, East Hampton, Huntington, Islip, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southampton, & Southold.

Nassau County

  • Nassau County Website
    • Offers links to PDF files of the Nassau County Charter, the County Administrative Code, & County Miscellaneous Laws. This site also provides links to the municipal code information available online for the following local governments:
      • Atlantic Beach, Bellerose, East Rockaway, Floral Park, Flower Hill, Garden City, Glen Cove, Hempstead, Lake Success, Lawrence, Malverne, Matinecock, Munsey Park, Muttontown, North Hempstead, Oyster Bay, Roslyn, Sands Point, and Westbury.
    • You can find the Nassau County Legislature homepage here

New York City Laws

To search or browse the New York City Charter or the New York City Administrative Code, visit the New York City Government Website Law Department page under the Public Resources section here

Want to learn more about how the New York City Government is organized? Download the NYC Organizational Chart here. 

Local Laws Across the Country

The best place to search for a statutory code of a specific location within a state is to start at that locality's government website. Often the links to the code will be found there.

You can also search for locality codes at these websites. Links to codes for counties, towns, cities and villages throughout the United States are provided. Neither website contains all of the codes, however it is a good place to start.