Barrow: breaking the government habit.

• Author: Patkotak, Elise Sereni

The area now known as Barrow has a cultural memory that stretches back into pre-history. Utkeagvik, the Inupiat name for the area meaning "place to hunt the snowy owl," has been inhabited for thousands of years. Bodies that date back 400 to 800 years often emerge from the eroding cliffs along the town's shoreline. Barrow's modern economic history, however, only dates back to 1972, the year the North Slope Borough was incorporated.

With its ability to impose a property tax within its boundaries - boundaries that include the Prudhoe Bay industrial complex - the borough quickly became the 900 lb. gorilla in the North Slope's new cash economy. For Barrow in particular, the impact was loud, direct and left far-reaching repercussions.

Prior to the borough's creation, Barrow was a small Inupiat village with a subsistence economy. The indigenous people marked the seasons of the year with spring whaling and goose hunting; summer seal and walrus hunting; fall caribou and duck hunting. Time was a concept seen in the lengthening days and nights of the Arctic year. Nine-to-five workdays were unheard of except for a few precious jobs available to the local work force through the Bureau of Indian Affairs school, the Indian Health Service hospital or the Naval Arctic Research Lab near town.

This all changed when Barrow became the seat of government for the North Slope Borough. Initially, jobs created by borough government as it geared up to provide services across the North Slope were confined almost exclusively to Barrow. This swift change to a cash economy had many consequences, especially upon the Inupiat culture.

Due to a lack of educational opportunities for local residents prior to 1972, coupled with a population dependent on subsistence for its existence, the local workforce was largely unable to benefit from these jobs at first. Outside workers poured in over night. In the 23 years from 1970 to 1993, the years of greatest impact from oil activity at Prudhoe Bay, the population almost doubled, rising from 2,152 to 3,908.

Those same years also saw a dramatic shift in the composition of the population. Newcomers changed Barrow from more than 90 percent Inupiat, 24 percent Caucasian and 15 percent other. The economy changed from subsistence to a mix of subsistence and cash that is difficult to maintain without an employer willing to allow subsistence leave throughout the year.

Economic Profile

A few comparisons help illustrate the size and scope of the North Slope Borough economy. In 1993 the full-value assessment of personal property and real estate in the borough totaled more than $233 million. Oil and gas production properties were assessed at $11.9 billion, accounting for more than 98 percent of local tax revenues. The borough's property tax base of $12.2 billion in 1993 was the state's most valuable - worth almost a half billion dollars more than everything taxable in Anchorage, from Girdwood to Eklutna.

The borough collected almost $236 million in property taxes in 1993, contributing to total revenues of $351 million. Borough spending of $489 million for the same year amounts to a whopping $45,903 expenditure for each of the 8,572...