Editing County (United States) (section)

====Minimal scope====
In New England, counties function at most as judicial court districts and [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff's departments]] (presently, in [[Connecticut]] only as judicial court districts—and in [[Rhode Island]], they have lost both those functions and most others but they are still used by the [[United States Census Bureau]] and some other federal agencies for some federal functions), and most of the governmental authority below the state level is in the hands of [[New England town|towns and cities]]. In several of Maine's sparsely populated counties, small towns rely on the county for law enforcement, and in [[New Hampshire]] several social programs are administered at the state level. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of Massachusetts, counties are now only geographic designations, and they do not have any governmental powers. All government is either done at the state level or at the municipal level. In Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, regional councils have been established to partially fill the void left behind by the abolished county governments.<ref group=lower-alpha>Unlike in Massachusetts, [[Councils of governments in Connecticut|Connecticut's regional councils]] do not conform to the old county lines, but rather, they are composed of towns that share the same geographic area and have similar demographics.</ref> The regional councils' authority is limited compared with a county government—they have authority only over infrastructure and [[land use planning]], distribution of state and federal funds for infrastructure projects, emergency preparedness, and limited law enforcement duties.