Sarah Palin increased operating budget by 27 percent over two years

It might be helpful to focus on the details of Sarah Palin's record as Governor of Alaska. While some press reports have described her as an opponent of government spending, her short record as Governor tells a different story.

Sarah Palin was elected Governor in November 2006. She inherited the fiscal year 2007 budget, but was responsible for the next two -- fy 2008 and fy 2009. It is difficult to sort out the total spending in budgets, as there are state outlays, federal matching funds, revenues from special funds, and capital outlays. The following are figures from the state general fund portion* of the operating budget . She inherited outlays of $3.343 billion. By fy 2008 this had risen to $3.763 billion. The fy 2009 budget, so far, is $4.242 billion. The two year increase is a whooping 27 percent -- hardly a measure of fiscal restraint.

Source:State of Alaska Fiscal Summary, Legislative Finance Division

Some other numbers from the budget illustrate just how much the Alaska Government is spending these days. When you include not only the state general fund contributions to the operating budget, but also federal matching funds, the capital budget and other sources of funding, Governor Palin's fy 2009 request was $8.496 billion. This works about to about $12,680 per person, or more than $50 thousand for a family of four. I think it is worth pointing this out.

* The part paid for by state taxpayers.

Comments

[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 other states and the per capita spending or revenue especially federal to shed more light on this?

[WhoIsJohnGalt42]

i will ask this again on this post. where do these numbers come from? and where can these numbers be obtained for other states by way of comparison? i think it would be very very illuminating to show the alaska state budget per capita and the federal requested funds per capita for alaska and compare that with other states both liberal and conservative? is alaska and it's governor spending more and getting more federal funding per capita than most other states in america. this would be a powerful piece of clear and simple truth to cut through all of the lies, half-truths and spin as the republicans try to sell sell sell their tabula rasa to the rest of the country.

[athenasword]

Could Huffpo start a page (maybe there is one already) with her whole resume and record listed in by bullet point? That would be really helpful as quick reference.

[Aby]

Interesting, but she was Governor for only 20 months.

She had 6 years as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. McCain sees this as the reason she outshines Obama, so let's look at how she did in Wasilla.

She inherited a city with zero debt, but left this small town (pop. 5000) $22 million in debt by the time she was through.

What did she spend the money on? Not the sewage plant they needed, a decent storm drainage system, or the infrastructure she promised. Instead she spent over $15 million on building a sports complex, and incurred 7 years of legal fees since the City didn't have clear title to the land it was built on. She also remodelled City Hall and her office (more than once).

[ShamusNYC]

Wow - she is Presidential!

[SimonNZ]

She'll fit right in to a Republican Whitehouse then. Cut taxes for the ultra-rich and ramp up spending on wars, paid for by deficit - who says a McBush presidency won't be fun?