Sarah Palin, American Hero
I saw this on crossbow1's blog. In the interest of continuing the spread of this information about Sarah Palin, I'm going to re-post the highlights:
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 six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent. 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 huge increases in tax revenue 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 more than $22 million.
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."
Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
Go to this website to see the full letter. Let's face it, she's who George W. Bush would be if he had a brain.
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 six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent. 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 huge increases in tax revenue 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 more than $22 million.
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."
Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
Go to this website to see the full letter. Let's face it, she's who George W. Bush would be if he had a brain.