A Special-Purpose Government is slightly different from other types of government. These are layers or units of government that are Independent and separate from more general purpose governments like county government , city, or state governments. While there is just one national government and 50 state governments, in the U.S. there are over 3,000 county , 19,000 municipal governments, 16,000 town governments, and nearly 48,000 special purpose governments. Special Purpose Governments have very limited areas and usually some very specific functions. Examples might be a school district , as well as a police department .