The other answers about hamlets, villages, towns, and special districts
(for street lights they are called lighting districts) are all correct. Two
additional pieces of information.

First, town tax rates may be levied at a different rate inside a village.
This is often the case when, for example, the village does some or all of
its own road maintenance. Then the town will usually charge a different
(lower) tax rate to those inside the village.

Second, inside the Adirondack Park hamlets take on a specific, legal
definition. That is, with the complex, technical, and (many park residents
believe) overly cumbersome and restrictive land use zoning regulations
(with the power of State law), hamlets are a specific designation that
allows a higher building density and the possibility (though with many
hoops to jump through) of industrial sites. In other words, the APA
(Adirondack Park Agency) is expected to encourage (or at least tolerate)
some level of human activity within recognized, designated, existing
hamlets. There are no cities and few villages within the Park, so this
covers most communities within the 'Blue LIne.'

Wayne Miller

carol kammen writes:

> Phil
>
>         I have gotten lots of answers.  I was asked this by someone here
> and decided I needed some exact wording.  Hamlets cannot be incorporated,
> they all say, and don't have taxing power.
>
>         carol