The government of Alaska in common with state and federal governments of the United States , has three branches of government : the executive , consisting of the Governor of Alaska and the state agencies; the state legislature consisting of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate ; and the judiciary consisting of the Supreme court and lower courts.
18-584: The Alaska Attorney General is the chief legal advisor to the government of the State of Alaska and to its governor . The Attorney General is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Alaska Legislature . The position has existed since the early days of the Territory of Alaska , though it was an elected rather than an appointed position prior to statehood. The Attorney General also serves as
36-469: A first class city sits inside of a borough it is not also required to operate a local school district. Areas where no city or borough governments have yet been established are said to sit inside "the Unorganized Borough." In these areas, state government provides most services that would otherwise be provided by cities or boroughs. Census area The U.S. state of Alaska
54-560: A higher rate than second class cities (30 vs. 20 mills) but are required to provide educational services (local schools) while second class cities are not permitted to operate local schools. Home rule cities and boroughs also have greater authority in land use planning, transportation infrastructure, licensing, regulation, waste disposal, economic development, emergency medical services and so on. These differences are complicated somewhat when cities sit inside of boroughs. For example, boroughs are required to operate local schools and therefore if
72-592: Is Mike Dunleavy (R) and the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska is Nancy Dahlstrom (R). Alaska has a Legislature . It is a bicameral institution, consisting of a lower chamber , the Alaska House of Representatives with 40 members, and an upper chamber , the Alaska Senate with 20 members. There are 40 House Districts (1-40) and 20 Senate Districts (A-T). The Alaska Legislature meets in
90-553: Is divided into 19 organized boroughs and 11 census areas in the unorganized borough . Alaska and the state of Louisiana are the only states that do not call their first-order administrative subdivisions counties (Louisiana uses parishes instead). Delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention wanted to avoid the traditional county system and adopted their own unique model with different classes of boroughs varying in powers and duties. Many of
108-413: Is that some boroughs and cities have greater responsibility to provide certain kinds of services, and greater power including greater authority to tax. In general, "home rule" governments have more responsibility and authority than first class governments, first class governments have more responsibility and authority than second class governments and so on. For example, home rule cities may tax property at
126-507: Is the portion of the U.S. state of Alaska not contained in any of its 19 organized boroughs . While referred to as the "Unorganized Borough", it is not a borough itself. It encompasses over half of Alaska's area, 970,500 km . If the unorganized Borough were a state in itself, it would be the largest state in the United States of America, larger than the rest of Alaska and larger than Texas or California. (374,712 mi ). As of
144-733: The State Capitol building in Juneau . The Alaska Court System is the unified, centrally administered, and totally state-funded judicial system . The Alaska District Court are the primary misdemeanor trial courts , the Alaska Superior Courts are the primary felony trial courts, and the Alaska Supreme Court and the Alaska Court of Appeals are the primary appellate courts . The Chief Justice of
162-736: The Alaska Supreme Court is the administrative head of the Alaska Court System. Alaska has two levels of local government, including boroughs (of which there are 19) and cities (currently 144). Boroughs in Alaska play a role very similar to Counties in 48 other states and Parishes in Louisiana. Owing to the state's low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough which, as
180-675: The Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Law, and is the only commissioner of a principal department of Alaska state government not referred to as "Commissioner" in normal usage. In the earliest days of the Alaska Territory , the Territorial Counsel served as the de facto attorney general. Only one person, John H. Cobb, served in this position. The 2nd Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1915 created
198-585: The Office of the Attorney General, to become effective after the 1916 general election. The attorney general's position was an elected position during the entirety of territorial days, as opposed to under statehood, in which it has been a position appointed by the governor since 1959. The following is a list of attorneys general in Alaska. This Alaska-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to law in
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#1732780335991216-440: The United States or its constituent jurisdictions is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Government of Alaska Alaska has 246 federally recognized tribal governments and one federal Indian (Native American) reservation . The Governor of Alaska is the senior-most official of the Alaska executive branch. The main Alaska state agencies are the: Other agencies are the: The current Governor of Alaska
234-538: The city but inside the borough. Other localities have both city governments and borough governments--borough governments provide services to less densely populated areas than city governments. Alaska has several types of borough governments and city governments: cities are divided into home rule, first class and second class cities. Boroughs are divided into home rule, first class, second class, and third class boroughs. The difference between these levels of organization (i.e., home rule, first class, second class and so on)
252-565: The most densely populated regions of the state are part of Alaska's boroughs, which function similarly to counties in other states. There are four different classifications of organized boroughs: "Unified Home Rule" or "Non-unified Home Rule" (may exercise all legislative powers not prohibited by law or charter); "First Class" (may exercise any power not prohibited by law on a non-area wide basis by adopting ordinances); and "Second Class" (must gain voter approval for authority to exercise many non-area wide powers). However, unlike county-equivalents in
270-631: The name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government. Currently ( 2000 census ) 57.71 percent of Alaska's land area has this status; however, its population comprises only 13.05 percent of the state's total. For statistical purposes the United States Census Bureau divides this territory into census areas . Several population centers, including Anchorage and Juneau, have merged their city and borough governments because very few residents of these communities live outside
288-417: The other 49 states, the organized boroughs do not cover the entire land area of the state. The area not part of any organized borough is referred to as the Unorganized Borough . The U.S. Census Bureau , in cooperation with the state, divides the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas, each roughly corresponding to an election district, thus totaling 30 county equivalents. However, these areas exist solely for
306-740: The purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government of their own. Boroughs and census areas are both treated as county-level equivalents by the Census Bureau. Some areas in the Unorganized Borough receive limited public services directly from the Alaska state government, usually law enforcement from the Alaska State Troopers and educational funding. Seven consolidated city-borough governments exist— Juneau City and Borough , Skagway Municipality , Sitka City and Borough , Yakutat City and Borough , Wrangell City and Borough , Haines Borough , as well as
324-622: The state's largest city, Anchorage . Though its legal name is the Municipality of Anchorage, it is considered a consolidated city-borough under state law. The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 55-2,3,4 codes, which are used by the United States Census Bureau to uniquely identify states and counties, is provided with each entry. Alaska's code is 02, so each code is of the format 02XXX. The FIPS code for each county equivalent links to census data for that county equivalent. There are 30 divisions in Alaska. The Unorganized Borough
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