For Audra: Substantively Dissing Sarah Palin
Everyone's doin' it. Everyone's blogging Sarah Palin, and yeah, a lot of the muckracking is predictable.
From Galloping Beaver, however, comes a discussion of an article, originally published in Crosscut Seattle, from a Wamsilla resident-one of the people best suited to provide a long-term overview of Governor Palin's political history, her public persona, her community involvement, and a look at how her policies have worked (or not) in the places she was elected to serve:
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 tax cuts that she promoted benefitted large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
Political writers, take note: This is the kind of political analysis and writing that I would love to read more of. audrawilliams, I offer this as a tonic to some of the less insightful, policy-based so-called reporting crossing our monitors.
From Galloping Beaver, however, comes a discussion of an article, originally published in Crosscut Seattle, from a Wamsilla resident-one of the people best suited to provide a long-term overview of Governor Palin's political history, her public persona, her community involvement, and a look at how her policies have worked (or not) in the places she was elected to serve:
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 tax cuts that she promoted benefitted large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
Political writers, take note: This is the kind of political analysis and writing that I would love to read more of. audrawilliams, I offer this as a tonic to some of the less insightful, policy-based so-called reporting crossing our monitors.