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Unorganized Borough, Alaska facts for kids

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Unorganized Borough
Nenana Depot
Nenana Depot
Map of Alaska highlighting Unorganized Borough
Location within the U.S. state of Alaska
Map of the United States highlighting Alaska
Alaska's location within the U.S.
Country  United States
State  Alaska
Seat None
Largest community Bethel
Area
 • Total 323,440 sq mi (837,700 km2)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total 77,157
Time zone UTC−9 (Alaska)
 • Summer (DST) UTC−8 (ADT)

The Unorganized Borough is composed of the portions of the U.S. state of Alaska which are not contained in any of its 19 organized boroughs. While referred to as the "Unorganized Borough," it is not a borough itself, as it forgoes that level of government structure. It encompasses nearly half of Alaska's land area, 323,440 square miles (837,700 km2), an area larger than any other U.S. state, and larger than the land area of the smallest 16 states combined. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, it had a population of 77,157, which was 10.52% of the population of the state. The largest communities in the Unorganized Borough are the cities of Bethel, Unalaska and Valdez.

Overview

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, in cooperation with the state, divided the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas beginning with the 1970 census. Currently, after Petersburg Census Area was made a borough, there are 10 census areas in the Unorganized Borough:

This vast area has no local-level government other than that of school districts and municipalities 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 had forbidden the territory from establishing counties. The delegates of the convention which wrote the Alaska Constitution 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. 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 as well as Hawaii. According to Article X of the Alaska Constitution, 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 immediately 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:

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.

Dispute 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, including natural resource extraction and tourism.

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. Bills have been introduced in the Alaska Legislature to compel these areas to incorporate, though as of 2009, none have been signed into law.

Major communities



Regional Educational Attendance Areas

There are 19 Regional Educational Attendance Areas in the unorganized borough.

Regional name Headquarters REAA or Borough School Locations Notes
Alaska Gateway Tok
Dot Lake
Eagle
Northway
Tanacross
Tetlin
Northeast central Alaska area
Aleutian Region
Adak
Atka
Nikolski (closed)
Annette Island Metlakatla
Bering Straits Unalakleet Norton Sound
Elim
Golovin
Koyuk
Saint Michael
Shaktoolik
Stebbins
White Mountain

Seward Peninsula

Brevig Mission
Shishmaref
Teller
Wales

Saint Lawrence Island

Gambell
Savoonga
Chatham Angoon
Gustavus
Elfin Cove (closed), Cube Cove (closed)
Chugach
Chenega Bay
Tatitlek
Whittier
Copper River Glennallen
Kenny Lake
Slana
Chistochina (closed), Copper Center (closed), Gakona (closed), Nelchina (closed)
Delta/Greely Delta Junction
Gerstle River
Healy Lake (closed), Fort Greely (closed)
Iditarod McGrath
Anvik
Grayling
Holy Cross
Nikolai
Shageluk
Takotna
Lake Minchumina (closed), Lime Village (closed)
Kuspuk Aniak
Crooked Creek
Chuathbaluk
Lower Kalskag
Sleetmute
Stony River
Upper Kalskag
Red Devil (closed)
Lower Kuskokwim Nunivak Island
Mekoryuk
Lower Yukon Mountain Village
Alakanuk
Emmonak
Hooper Bay
Kotlik
Marshall
Nunam Iqua
Pilot Station
Russian Mission
Scammon Bay
Pitkas Point (closed)
Pribilof Islands Saint Paul Saint George (closed)
Southeast Island
Coffman
Hollis
Kasaan
Naukati
Port Alexander
Thorne Bay
Whale Pass
Edna Bay (closed), Port Protection (closed)
Southwest Region Aleknagik
Clark's Point
Ekwok
Koliganek
Manokotak
New Stuyahok
Togiak
Twin Hills
Portage Creek (closed)
Yukon Flats Fort Yukon
Arctic Village
Beaver
Chalkyitsik
Circle
Rampart
Stevens Village
Venetie
Birch Creek (closed), Central (closed)
Yukon-Koyukuk
Allakaket
Hughes
Huslia
Kaltag
Koyukuk
Manley Hot Springs
Minto
Nulato
Ruby
Bettles (closed)
Yupiit (Akiachak, Akiak, Tuluksak) Akiachak
Akiak
Atmautluak
Bethel
Chefornak
Eek
Goodnews Bay
Kasigluk
Kipnuk
Kongiganak
Kwethluk
Kwigillingok
Napakiak
Napaskiak
Newtok
Nightmute
Nunapitchuk
Oscarville
Platinum
Quinhagak
Toksook Bay
Tuluksak
Tuntutuliak
Tununak
Kashunamiut (Chevak) Chevak

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Borough no organizado para niños

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