ABOUT SARAH PALIN

> >

> > I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.

> > Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a

> > first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her

> > father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a

> > first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more

> > City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the

> > residents of the city.

> >

>

> > Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000

> > (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about

> > 670,000 residents.

> >

> > During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running

> > this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been

> > pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had

> > gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had

> > given rise to a recall campaign.

> >

> > 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.

> >

> > The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration

> > weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed

> > money was needed, too. She inherited a city 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.

> >

> > As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus

> > in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make

> > us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed

> > distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

> >

> > In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she

> > recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she

> > proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus,

> > borrow for needs.

> >

As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her

> > or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis

> > of who proposed them.

> >

> > While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected

> > City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from

> > the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents

> > rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt

> > at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her

> > termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian

> > are on her enemies list to this day.

> >

Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as

> > Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,

> > creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally

> > grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power

> > to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the

> > case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

> >

> > As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated"

> > her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top

> > cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and

> > she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an

> > important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't

> > fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation

> > for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts

> > were made between her staff and family to the person that she later

> > fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to

> > replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded

> > for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her

> > support.

> >

> > As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from

> > Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel

> > politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to

> > nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

> >

> > As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget

> > guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing

> > projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative

> > action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply

> > because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant

> > she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

> >

> > Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife

> > Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to

> > global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state

> > initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from

> > pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the

> > state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's

> > lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears

> > as threatened species.