[Dxbase] Alaska Counties

Fri Dec 12 18:39:45 EST 2008

Alaska has no counties. Alaska was prohibited from forming counties by the Federal government in the Alaska Statehood Act as a result of lobbying efforts by the fishing and mining industries at that time. The intent was to prevent AK counties from levying property taxes against the assets of these industries. To get around this prohibition, the Alaska State Constitution allows the formation of Boroughs. These are very similar to counties, but without police forces. Police forces are provided only by incorporated municipalities or the Alaska State Troopers. Boroughs do have the power to levy property taxes, which is why they are not found in all areas of the state. Bush Alaska (native) communities that typically live a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, trapping and fishing are cash poor and are opposed to being taxed by a Borough, so they usually vote down any attempts to form a Borough.
This gives the County Hunters a problem as not all areas of the state are covered by Boroughs. To get around this the County Hunters use the boundaries of the four Alaska Judicial Districts, which do encompass all of Alaska even out to the end of the Aleutians. The Judicial Districts are usually referred to by their geographic area. I live in the 3rd Judicial District which is also known as Southcentral. See http://www.qsl.net/kl7j/county.htm for a more complete breakdown of the Judicial Districts and an AK map showing their boundaries.
73,
Gary AL9A
 ----- Original Message ----- 
 From: K3SEW 
 To: _DXbase Post 
 Sent: December 12, 2008 1:52 PM
 Subject: [Dxbase] Alaska Counties
 DXbase 2007 lists 4 districts as the Alaskan counties. However the County Hunters list them as boroughs. This is similar to LA perishes. Why dosent DXbase list the boroughs rather than 4 districts? This is confusing to me. 
 · Anchorage Borough 
 · Bethel Census Area 
 · Bristol Bay Borough 
 · Dillingham Census Area 
 · Fairbanks North Star Borough 
 · Haines Borough 
 · Juneau Borough 
 · Kenai Peninsula Borough 
 · Ketchikan Gateway Borough 
 · Kodiak Island Borough 
 · Matanuska-Susitna Borough 
 · Nome Census Area 
 · North Slope Borough 
 · Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Census A 
 · Sitka Borough 
 · Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon Census Area 
 · Southeast Fairbanks Census Area 
 · Valdez-Cordova Census Area 
 · Wade Hampton Census Area 
 · Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area 
 · Yakutat Borough
 · Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area 
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