Here's an interesting report about Palin the fiscal conservative?

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 9, 2008; A01

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as a crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause.

Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said.

"As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events."

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said.

Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses and $19,000 for her husband's.

Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation.

One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo.

Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem [for] the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5."

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won.

Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for a flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife.

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

"She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well," said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. "Some do, some don't."

Leighow said that the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him.

"And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge.

But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel.

yup.

a paltry sum for the savings made by selling that luxury jet for the governor.

yup, tell that to the citizens of Alaska that get $1200 more a year from the state treasury for the oil revenues gleaned.

and when the natural gas pipeline is finished, more money will flow to the people of that state.

That does not happen in California, and we have more oil here.


Want to move to Alaska and get in on the givebacks?


Or do you want to see what she can do for the WHOLE COUNTRY??????????????????


The choice is yours.


nobama 2008

interesting.

Tell me, when are they even going to start building the natural gas pipeline? The government hasn't even approved the building of this pipeline yet.

Considering the party she is affiliated with is anyone surprised???

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157986

so are you saying anyone in said party is guilty of what?

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travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions

on official business for his wife.

the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said.


just a few points in article listed

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so i guess bill clinton should pay for the times hillary and their daughter on state sponsored trips wonder what a ride on air force one is worth hhhhmmmmmmm

but then again with the party he belongs too ..........

sooner than you think once she gets in the White House to kick some butts and get the lead out of the approval process.

her record speaks for itself.

Might I recommend investing in Alaskan real estate?

The Governor with the corporate jet and "extravagant" spending... Frank Murkowski (R)

You post verbatim quotes from Sean Hannity, without attribution of course.

I work during the day... Hannity is on while I work..so there goes your theory.

Those stories are blantant lies... to keep perpetrating these lies is arrogance.

Hannity has a Faux TV show weeknights... He's all over Faux with Billo and the rest of the mouthpieces.

UH! News Flash! People watch FOX becasue they ARE fair & balanced. Noraml people know what fiar & balnced means. Maybe you need to adjust your thinking. Just a suggestion...

I can admit the partisanship. You cannot. It's fundamentally about honesty. Just like the election.

You staunchly defend Faux, yet your statement above indicated a lack of awareness of their lineup. Somethings amiss.

Remember the story about Dems throwing away US flags after the convention.

Made up by Fox and they admitted it was made up by them, identified the offender and retracted the story.

If this story starting this thread is disproved or retracted I invite you to post that evidence.

There are several posters who seem so threatened by anything I post instead of reading or researching they just point fingers and yell lies. In the case of the list of library books Palin sought to ban I myself posted that the accuracy of the list was in doubt but that she did seek to ban books and fire the librarian who refused to do so. That is a matter of public record and clearly not a lie.

Funny that some posters, who apparently do not read(as evidenced to not reading I point to my comments on the accuracy of the list on the book banning thread) can call the research and reporting of professional journalists lies when these posters do nothing more than to point and shout the word lies. I see no contraindicating arguments or facts backing up the accusation of lying.

There's a nifty little thing called libel. If the story in the thread above is a lie why isn't the paper being sued or publishing a retraction?

Here is why (at the risk of hugely over simplifying it) you cannot sue for libel if the statement is factual. Well you can sue but the suit won't go far.