UNDATED (WJON News) -- Minnesota's townships will hold their annual meetings on Tuesday during Township Day.

Minnesota Association of Townships spokesman Steve Fenske says it's a day for residents to elect their local leaders.

Many of them still have a March general election for their township offices.  It also is a townhall style meeting in which they can all get together and have discussions about their township and what it is doing and where they would like their township to go.

Fenske says most townships will be setting their tax levy during their meetings.

More and more townships have been dependent on local property taxes to fulfill the same services they've always been providing like their roads and fire coverage.  That's something every township has to deal with in their annual meeting on Tuesday.  They are the only group of Minnesotans that get to set their tax levy directly by vote.

Minnesota has 1,777 townships with just over 918,000 residents.

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The townships were established in the 1800s when Congress ordered a survey that divided the Minnesota territory into 36 square mile tracts of land.

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