Palin Resignation Costs Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Early estimates put the cost of Sarah Palin's midterm resignation as Alaska governor at a minimum of $40,000, not including a special legislative session partly linked to her departure.

The preliminary figures obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request show it cost the state almost $14,100 for the July 26 swearing-in ceremony of new Gov. Sean Parnell.

The price tag for moving Palin – the former GOP vice presidential candidate – and her family from the governor's mansion in Juneau amounted to roughly $3,328.

Palin's spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, says suggesting the resignation cost the state is "incredibly misleading." She says the resignation ceremony was added to a previously scheduled governor's picnic and was organized by the lieutenant governor's office.

The tally doesn't include the estimated $100,000 it cost for a one-day special session last month in which lawmakers approved Palin's pick to replace Parnell as lieutenant governor and overrode her veto of federal stimulus funds intended for energy efficiency projects.

Comments

[AxelDC]

Worth every penny of it!

[mikebarden]

Sos the luetenent governor decided to have a picnic when she left?

[DickyTrik]

Now she's got a piece in the Wall Street Journal! Maybe it's time to try to STOP her, as long as it doesn't include stooping to the level of the kind of smears used against Van Jones!

[patriotrebel]

After the health care public option fails to pass, the liberals will blame Palin for that too...

[truthmatterstoo]

John McCain has destroyed any ounce of human decency of himself by bring this useless use of a figure into the public spotlight. The RIGHT will forever be labeled as winers and crybabies since this sad excuse for a public figure doesn't know if she is public or private....but one thing is for sure, she is up for sale on EBAY....i wonder which insurance..I mean death panel will buy her? We always KNEW there was a price on her pretty little head...since there is clearly NOTHING inside her pretty little head.

Selling yourself on EBAY before you actually get elected...WOW... that is pretty gutsy?

[KIVPossum]

Yes, a bit over a year ago, I told people that althought I was an Obama supporter, McCain was an honorable man who had America's best interests at heart.

He showed he was not, and did not, when he selected Palin as his running mate. To me, a lifetime of his good works evaporated in that one action, just a when Colin Powel stood before the U.N. and cried WMD.

[Babele]

If we still have to look at her face, we are all paying a price.

[zeeshan809]

I think Palin was costing more to the whole of Alaska than being miss nobody right now.


http://next-world-war.blogspot.com

[darter22]

Alaskans, don't worry about the money. Not having Palin as governor would still be a bargain at 10 times the cost.

[DickyTrik]

David Letterman could make some good jokes about THIS! Sometimes I wonder if he thinks about Sarah Palin more than his own wife!

[DrCardio]

I cannot wait for SNL to start back up. I hope they satire Palin as a guest on the Beck show. They really have to find someone to do a good Beck. That guy is a sphere of material.

[InYourFaceRadio]

I'd rather hear about Sara from Levi ... I hope he runs. I'd support him! LOL

[K M D]

Stop writing about her and "it" will go away. It's like picking at a scab.

This crap is just keeping her in the limelight. Stop it, she's not worth it, and the less importance we put on anything this dingbat does, the better off we are.

[HotFuzz]

What does she care? It's not her money.

[wiseRN]

They will still be saving in the long run. I really question her ability to handle a crisis. She gets
upset over the least little news coverage. When you start "talking bact" to the press over little stuff
and seemingly get "unhinged" over it one must come to the conclusion that a real crisis just couldn't
be handle by this individual.

[patriotrebel]

The New Liberal Math: $40,000 in resignation costs is greater than millions of dollars in ongoing frivolous lawsuits.

[mdlw]

"Today, we learn that “millions of dollars” is in fact, actually $296,000, as far as ethics complaints go. Numbers shmumbers.

$187,797 stemmed from the Troopergate investigation, a good chunk of which Palin initiated herself...."

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/07/02/numbers-shmumbers/

”Is it a check that we wrote, no, but is it staff hours, yes,” Sharon Leighow, spokeswoman for Palin, said of the expenses related to state employee work. Those state employees would have been paid regardless.

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/07/10/palins-millllions-take-2-a-closer-look/

[patriotrebel]

All those costs are still greater than $40,000. With the continuous attacks against her, costs would have continued to escalate had she remained governor. State employee hours dedicated to those lawsuits, rather than other work--still a cost. She did the right thing by resigning and saving taxpayers from further costs. Liberals can't seem to make up their minds as to whether Palin should have remained governor or resigned. What a dilemma.

[sippewissett]

You swallowed that claim of Palin's? Shame on you. The actual amount is around $250K since she decided to count the salaries of state attorneys as part of the "cxost". Wrong: they are at work anyway.

The problem pure and simply is that Palin attracted those ethics charges like a magnet and was found guilty of some substantive ones (like expecting the state to pay for her kids' travel and being found guilty by a bi-partisan panel of the legislature of interfering with the Troopergate investigation).

You may not like AK law that permits citizens to file complaints, but they are within their rights and Palin earned the scrutiny.

[lazercat2008]

frivolous?

[ssfahrer]

Now its about time we did the right thing and sold (or leased) Alaska back to Russia for what we paid for it (in inflation adjusted dollars of course)-- if they could afford it! Despite (or because!) of the oil up there, that purchase truly was "Seward's Folly"!! Let Russia deal with those foolish Alaskans. (If they refuse, we could try selling or leasing that state to Canada.... After all, it is closer to Canada than it is to the continental U S....) Glad to get rid of it!

[Owen McPhillips]

If you're so glad to get rid of Alaska, why not just LET IT GO rather than selling or leasing it?

[antifluff]

Explain how that is the "right" thing.