Palin Record on Fiscal Reform: Doing the Math

The GOP press spin is that Sarah Palin is a fiscal conservative. How does this compare to the facts on the ground? Since taking office as Governor in late 2006, she has presented two state budgets.

* Palin asked for combined increases in state funding for the operating budget of 27 percent over two years.

* The fy 2009 Palin budget request, including all funding sources and the capital budget was $8.496 billion, for a state of 570 thousand persons. That's $12,680 per capita, or $51k for a family of four. No other state is close to this level of state government spending.

* The fy 2009 Palin budget request included $2.571 billion in federal funds. That's $4,510 per capita in money from Washington, DC.

Alaska is flush with cash these days, but it also needs to create a more sustainable fiscal environment, as oil prices fluctuate and production from the Alaska North Slope declines. Palin's leadership in reigning in spending is being hyped, but it does not jive with her budget requests. Big increases in the operating budget are the opposite of spending restraint.

Read more analysis from HuffPost bloggers on John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin

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Comments

[tsquant]

Hope you all understand what Reagan and Slick Willy Clinton did for our economy. They made their administrations look better by changing how the government reports/changed the data of important economic reports.

Do you wonder why the economy is the worst since 1929 yet Bush/McCain say the economy is stable and strong and all of the talkingheads say we are not in recession yet Buffet and Soros have said for months we are in a recession? Actually it is a stagflation recession. Thank Reagan and Slick Willy for the "pseudo economic stability" reported in our government reports.

http://www.shadowstats.com/

[WhoIsJohnGalt42]

ok, i am no budget wiz but between these two links:

http://www.tax.alaska.gov/programs/documentviewer/viewer.aspx?255

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/omb/09_omb/budget/bills/FY09_Fiscal_Summary_rev_6-16-08.pdf

it looks to me like gov. palin and alaska are getting 2 BILLION dollars in federal revenues (and 5 Billion from OIL) out of a total of some 12 BILLION. and it looks like they are spending a total of 5.6 BILLION. must be real tough to balance that budget and be popular when you don't have to have state taxes. according to the center on budget and policy priorities 29 states are facing budget shortfalls

http://www.cbpp.org/1-15-08sfp.htm

why is alaska getting so much federal money when they are flush with their own revenue sources (OIL). i tried to look at other state budget and revenue information (like Arizona) but it was so compicated i couldn't make any sense of it (to be honest i could barely make sense of the alaska information but i think it says alot that in 5 minutes i could at least get a basic grasp of it). does anyone have any expertise or more information about

[LeftRight]

The reason why they are getting so much back from the feds is simple. Ted Stevens. The man who, until the 2006 takeover, was the CHAIRMAN of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

[CalexenderJ]

Come on dude, the repubs aren't going to let little things like facts get in the way of their narrative. She's a reformer, she sold the state plane on ebay. Don't confuse me with unnecessary details like whether or not she's actually cut spending, or managed wisely.

[SailawayJane]

Under 8 yrs of Bush/Cheney the Republicans no longer own the fiscal conservative tag. They're anything but. Iraq just signed a $3B oil deal with China. According to B/C I thought we were supposed to get the oil there to pay for the war. Four more years of McCain, and this country will be borrowing more money from China just to pay for Federal employees. It's heartwrenching to watch the Repubs line up and chant they want more of the same.

[BLinCincinnati]

They never were fiscal conservative. Not in decades at least. Reagan ballooned the nation debt. So did Bush 41, and Bush 43. Funny how Clinton was the one that had the surpluses, while Repubs had all the massive deficits.

[SailawayJane]

That's the point, they were never fiscally conservative. Reagan's trickle down economics never worked, but they love to trot out that same old "tax and spend sh*t" every election and it has worked in 2000 and 2004. The surplus is gone and we're in debt to China more and more every day. Repubs refuse to look at the facts.

[KiwisCanFly]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/business/31view.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Extracts from:

Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.
Presidents have limited leverage over the nation’s economy.
Shows that when Democrats were in the White House, lower-income families experienced slightly faster income growth than higher-income families — which means that incomes were equalizing. In stark contrast, it also shows much faster income growth for the better-off when Republicans were in the White House — thus widening the gap in income.
Alan S. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and former vice

[KiwisCanFly]

Thank u James Love for addressing this issue.
It is not sexist to examine Palin's record.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”.

During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%.
During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002).

She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food.

The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.

Wasilla is a very small city.

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[KiwisCanFly]

YUP

"She's a woman who manages billion dollar budgets" says John McCain chief strategist Steve Schmidt.

Palin inherited a city (Wasilla) with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for?
Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported?
The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked?
Or a new library?

No.

$1m for a park.

$15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved!

She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[WhoIsJohnGalt42]

are there any other similar numbers for other states to compare these numbers to? i would be interested in know how the per capita budget of alaska compares to not only other "liberal" states but other "conservative" states as well.

[PioneerKing]

Dan Agin said it best - McCain/Bush/Cheney and the republicans are gas lighting America.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-agin/bush-mccain-and-the-gasli_b_115649.html

While the republicans and the main stream media portray McCain and Palin as mavericks and reformers their actions prove that they are neither mavericks nor reformers.

Palin cut social programs such as those that would benefit pregnant teens, a public library and community food bank programs while increasing pork and spending on programs that smack of cronyism.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-mcquaid/incoherence-from-mccain_b_111772.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-klein/mccains-secret-questionab_b_107409.html

[LeftRight]

Don't forget the 20-30 million dollars that she left in debt in Wassila!

[silverball]

so what else is new.???...they just repeat lies and falsehoods over....and over....and over....and over again and then even they believe it...along with the uninformed voters...they only hear th sound bites intended to decieve....pure rovian stuff at it's most basic...unfortunately it too often works....