Unorganized Borough
Encyclopedia
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
not contained in any of its 18 organized boroughs. It encompasses more than half of Alaska's area, 323440 square miles (837,705.8 km²), an area larger than any other US state. As of the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
, it had a population of 81,803, 13% of the population of the state.
Unique among the United States, Alaska is not entirely subdivided into organized county equivalents. To facilitate census taking in the vast unorganized area, the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, in cooperation with the state, divided the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas beginning with the 1970 census. The current list of census areas follows:
- Aleutians West Census AreaAleutians West Census Area, AlaskaAleutians West Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska. It contains most of the Aleutian Islands, from Attu Island in the west to Unalaska Island in the east, as well as the Pribilof Islands, which lie north of the Aleutians in the Bering Sea. As of 2010, the population is...
- Bethel Census AreaBethel Census Area, AlaskaBethel Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of 2000, the population is 16,006. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
- Dillingham Census AreaDillingham Census Area, AlaskaDillingham Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 4,922. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
- Nome Census AreaNome Census Area, AlaskaNome Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 9,196. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat. Its largest community by far is the city of Nome....
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- Southeast Fairbanks Census AreaSoutheast Fairbanks Census Area, AlaskaSoutheast Fairbanks Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 6,174. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
- Valdez-Cordova Census AreaValdez-Cordova Census Area, AlaskaValdez-Cordova Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 10,195. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
- Wade Hampton Census AreaWade Hampton Census Area, AlaskaWade Hampton Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population was 7,028. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
- Petersburg Census Area
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census AreaYukon-Koyukuk Census Area, AlaskaYukon-Koyukuk Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,588. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
This vast area has no local-level government other than that of school districts and municipalities
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
within its limits. Many of the villages do have tribal governments, however. Except within some incorporated cities, all government services in the Unorganized Borough, including law enforcement, are provided by the state or by the Tribal government. School districts in the Unorganized Borough are operated either by cities, in those limited instances when the city has chosen to undertake those powers, or through the general guidance of the state Department of Education under the auspices of Rural Education Attendance Areas (see below).
History
During the 1950s, when the push for the territory of Alaska to become a state was at its height, the presence of municipal government was extremely limited and scattered. Territory-wide, there were no more than a few dozen incorporated cities, and a small handful of service districts, broken into public utility districts and independent school districts. The service districts were authorized by the territorial legislature in 1935 to allow unincorporated areas limited powers to provide services and to tax for them.The United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
had forbidden the territory from establishing counties. A book would be published shortly before passage of statehood by a San Francisco-based consulting group advocating a county structure for Alaska, but there was never any serious drive to establish counties in Alaska.
The delegates of the Alaska Constitution
Alaska Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Alaska is the constitution of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was ratified in 1956 and took effect with Alaska's admission as a state on January 3, 1959.-The statehood movement:...
had, in fact, debated the merits of establishing counties, and had rejected the idea in favor of creating a system of boroughs, both organized and unorganized. The intent of the framers of the constitution was to provide for maximum local self-government with a minimum of local government units and tax levying jurisdictions.http://ltgov.alaska.gov/services/constitution.php?section=10
The minutes of the constitutional convention indicate that counties were not used as a form of local government for various reasons. The failure of some local economies to generate enough revenue to support separate counties was an important issue as well as the desire to use a model that would reflect the unique character of Alaska, provide for maximum local input, and avoid a body of county case law already in existence.
Instead, Alaska adopted boroughs as a form of regional government. This regionalization was an attempt to avoid having a number of independent, limited-purpose governments with confusing boundaries and inefficient governmental operations. The territorial service districts had amounted to this much, but were seen by many as an important foundation in government being able to provide services without becoming all-powerful and unnecessarily intrusive, an argument which would surface time and again during various attempts by the legislature to create organized boroughs out of portions of the unorganized borough.
Alaska formally adopted the borough structure by statute in 1961 and envisioned boroughs to serve as an "all-purpose" form of local government to avoid the perceived problems of county government in the Lower 48 States. According to Article X of the Alaska Constitution
Alaska Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Alaska is the constitution of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was ratified in 1956 and took effect with Alaska's admission as a state on January 3, 1959.-The statehood movement:...
, areas of the state unable to support borough government were to be served by several unorganized boroughs, which were to be mechanisms for the state to regionalize services; however, separate unorganized boroughs were never created. The entire state was defined as one vast unorganized borough with the Borough Act of 1961, and, over the ensuing years, Alaska's organized boroughs were carved out of it.
Alaska's first organized borough, and the only one incorporated after passage of the 1961 legislation, was the Bristol Bay Borough. As pressure would increase for other areas of the state to form boroughs, this led to the Mandatory Borough Act of 1963. This legislation called for all election districts in the state over a certain threshold in population to incorporate as boroughs by January 1, 1964.
To wit, a resolution of the State of Alaska's Local Boundary Commission introduced in January 2009 spells this out in greater detail:
- WHEREAS, the 1963 Alaska State Legislature passed, and Governor EganWilliam Allen EganWilliam Allen Egan was an American Democratic politician. He served as the first Governor of the State of Alaska from January 3, 1959 to 1966, and the fourth Governor from 1970 to 1974...
signed into law, the "Mandatory Borough Act" (Chapter 52, SLA 1963), dictating that certain regions of Alaska - those encompassing Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Kodiak IslandKodiak IslandKodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the United States and the 80th largest island in the world, with an...
, Kenai PeninsulaKenai PeninsulaThe Kenai Peninsula is a large peninsula jutting from the southern coast of Alaska in the United States. The name Kenai is probably derived from Kenayskaya, the Russian name for Cook Inlet, which borders the peninsula to the west.-Geography:...
, Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna valleysMatanuska-Susitna ValleyMatanuska-Susitna Valley is an area in Southcentral Alaska south of the Alaska Range about 35 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska....
, and FairbanksFairbanksFairbanks may refer to:Places in the United States*Fairbanks, Alaska, city*Fairbanks, California, unincorporated community in El Dorado County*Fairbanks, Mendocino County, California, former settlement*Fairbanks, Indiana, unincorporated community...
- form organized boroughs by January 1, 1964...http://www.ci.valdez.ak.us/clerk/documents/Rep2021709.pdf
Furthermore, Rural Education Attendance Areas were established by the Legislature in 1975. This had the effect of creating regional divisions of the unorganized borough for the purpose of establishing rural school districts. 21 REAAs were originally created; many of those would eventually be absorbed into organized boroughs over time.
The battle over future (mandatory) boroughs
A number of organized boroughs have been incorporated in the years since the Mandatory Borough Act, but most (the primary examples being the North Slope Borough, the Northwest Arctic Borough and the Denali Borough), were incorporated to exploit a source of significant taxation potential (natural resource extraction, tourism, etc.).The unorganized status of this vast area is not without controversy. Many residents of the Unorganized Borough, particularly those in the larger communities which may be most susceptible to organized borough incorporation, have been vociferous in stating their opposition to incorporation as a borough, and in stating why the status quo suits them just fine. Many point out that they would already live in an organized borough if they desired that lifestyle and the level of government which came with it.
On the other hand, many Alaskans residing in organized boroughs feel that they unfairly subsidize residents of the Unorganized Borough, especially for education. In 2003, the Alaska Division of Community Advocacy identified eight areas within the Unorganized Borough meeting standards for incorporation http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/lbc/boroughstudy/study_materials.htm. Bills have been introduced in the Alaska Legislature
Alaska Legislature
The Alaska Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a bicameral institution, consisting of the lower Alaska House of Representatives, with 40 members, and the upper house Alaska Senate, with 20 members...
to compel these areas to incorporate, though none has been signed into law.
Major communities
- BethelBethel, AlaskaBethel is a city located near the west coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, west of Anchorage. Accessible only by air and river, Bethel is the main port on the Kuskokwim River and is an administrative and transportation hub for the 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.Bethel is the largest...
(the largest city in the Unorganized Borough) - CordovaCordova, AlaskaAs of the census of 2000, there were 2,454 people, 958 households, and 597 families residing in the city. The population density was 40.0 per square mile . There are 1,099 housing units at an average density of 17.9 per square mile...
- CraigCraig, AlaskaCraig is a first-class city in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area in the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 1,397 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
- DeltanaDeltana, AlaskaDeltana is a census-designated place in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,570.-History:...
- DillinghamDillingham, Alaska- Natural resources :Dillingham was once known as the Pacific salmon capital of the world and commercial fishing remains an important part of the local economy...
- Hooper BayHooper Bay, AlaskaHooper Bay or Naparyarmiut is a city in Wade Hampton Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,014. The Boards of Canada EP Hooper Bay was named after the city....
- MetlakatlaMetlakatla, AlaskaMetlakatla is a census-designated place on Annette Island in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,375.- History :...
- NomeNome, AlaskaNome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
- PetersburgPetersburg, AlaskaPetersburg is a city in Petersburg Census Area, Alaska, in the United States. According to 2009 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 2,824 full time residents.- History :...
- TokTok, AlaskaTok is a census-designated place in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 1,393 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
- UnalaskaUnalaska, AlaskaUnalaska is a city in the Aleutians West Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off of mainland Alaska....
- ValdezValdez, AlaskaValdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
External links
- Legislative Directive for Unorganized Borough Review
- Map of proposed model borough boundaries Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development (1997)