burough vs county (Anchorage, Wasilla, Palmer: school districts, taxes, live in)

[jate88]

Why does Alaska have buroughs instead of counties? Unlike Louisiana's parishes I hear there are some differences.

[Marie Joseph]

We have boroughs here in PA, too.

A borough is a municipal administrative area with clearly defined boundaries and administered by an elected municipal official.

A county is a larger area that can contain multiple boroughs.

A parish is an ecclesiastical term meaning an administrative district of (originally) the Roman Catholic church, centered around one church and administered by a priest.

As to why Alaska has boroughs INSTEAD of counties...I don't know. That's kind of odd since most states have both counties and boroughs. I live in a borough in PA within Crawford County. Maybe Alaska likes to do things differently

[Haolejohn]

Originally Posted by Marie Joseph

A county is a larger area that can contain multiple boroughs.

You do realize many of our boroughs are the size of lower 48 states right?

[riceme]

I lived in several states before Alaska. Not one of them had boroughs inside of counties, and a couple of them had what I would refer to as large counties.

Methinks you need to look at a map. Meanwhile, glance over to the right at the column marked "area," then scroll down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...reas_in_Alaska

This article talks a bit about Alaska's boroughs:

Governing Alaska | Alaska History and Cultural Studies

[Marie Joseph]

Originally Posted by Haolejohn

You do realize many of our boroughs are the size of lower 48 states right?

Yes. Your North Slope borough could comfortably hold Minnesota in terms of square mileage...or my own state of PA and your choice of a couple of smaller states.

[jate88]

Pennsylvania does so have boroughs inside of counties. I live in Pennsylvania and I grew up in a borough so I know. Below the state level we have counties and school districts. All the school districts do is handle school stuff and the county governments take care of the rest. While school districts contain multiple boroughs, townships, towns, and cities a school district can possibly cross county lines. School districts were designed more with the geography of land in mind than counties were.

Below the county level the land is divided up into townships, boroughs, cities, and towns. Pennsylvania only has one town and that is Bloomsburg. In all other instances what would be refered to as towns in other states are called boroughs in Pennsylvania. Townships are basically chunks of largely undeveloped land except the parts that are in close proximity to a city, town, or borough. If there is an area of higher than average population density in a township compared to the surrounding areas in a township this gets referred to as a village. Villages are administered by the township government they reside in and don't have their own separate government. Then there are census designated places which are villages in townships that the US government considers separate from townships for census taking purposes.

At one point in time whether a municipality was considered a borough, city, or village was based on population but the designations haven't kept up with time. Reasons for this include fears of bigger government and higher taxes as well as people possibly losing their job.

Then their is Little Green Briar road in Wayne township of Mifflin county which everyone in the area refers to it as if it were a village, town, or borough but isn't any of those things.

[Metlakatla]

In Alaska, boroughs function pretty much the same way that counties do in other states. It's mostly a matter of verbiage (in other words, they just decided to call them boroughs instead of counties).

ETA no one said Pennsylvania didn't have boroughs inside of counties. Riceme simply questioned a statement about most states having both, and she was right. Only a small number of states do.

[Marie Joseph]

Originally Posted by riceme

I lived in several states before Alaska. Not one of them had boroughs inside of counties, and a couple of them had what I would refer to as large counties.

Methinks you need to look at a map. Meanwhile, glance over to the right at the column marked "area," then scroll down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...reas_in_Alaska

This article talks a bit about Alaska's boroughs:

Governing Alaska | Alaska History and Cultural Studies

Thank you for providing the links.

After looking at the links, it looks like Alaska and PA have a different meaning when they are using boroughs.

Boroughs are essentially small towns/villages here in PA--very different from what they are in Alaska.

Interesting how it varies state to state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_...n_Pennsylvania

[riceme]

Originally Posted by jate88

Pennsylvania does so have boroughs inside of counties.

I never said that Pennsylvania doesn't have boroughs inside of counties.
[CENTER]Save[/CENTER]

[AKStafford]

Not sure if this link has been posted yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...reas_in_Alaska
In addition to boroughs, some boroughs have been combined with their largest city. So the Anchorage Borough and City of Anchorage combined to become the Municipality of Anchorage, swallowing a few small towns along the way. Ditto with Juneau. And also Haines & Sitka. I think there's a few others too.
Another difference between boroughs and counties: not all of Alaska is covered by a borough. In those areas the state government is the only layer. Or city then state if there happens to be an organized city government.
I think the North Slope Borough is the only borough to have a police force. I believe all the combined city & borough governments offer a police force. But here in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough the City of Wasilla and City of Palmer both have police forces. But if you go outside city limits, then you'd call the Alaska State Troopers.