Posted on 09/26/2011 5:57:39 AM PDT by Bigtigermike
Wasilla’s debt did increase under Palin, but the Kilkenny chain letter being passed around by the left was seriously misleading and has been debunked.
1) As to the actual debt numbers:
“The city of Wasilla has made available all of its budgets during Palin’s tenure. So we grabbed the fiscal year ending 1996 (when Palin took the reins), which showed the city’s long-term debt at $1.12-million, mostly for paving and sewer projects.
“The annual financial report for fiscal year ending June 30, 2002 — Palin’s last year in office — shows that the total long-term debt was $24.8-million. So Kilkenny is off a bit when she says long-term debt went from zero to $22-million. But it did increase $23.7-million. “
2) As to the sequence of events that led to the above increase, several observations:
No increase of debt could be accomplished unilaterally by fiat of Palin. In reality the increase was a result of the town, as a town, choosing and voting to grow, and to buy the necessary infrastructure to succeed with that growth:
What is important to notice here is that it was Palin’s strong bent to fiscal conservatism that induced the town to grow in the first place, because it was her grasp, even way back then, of the properly limited role of government in supporting a healthy private sector that made the plan work. Indeed, using a combination of infrastructure improvements and other favorable business treatments to incentivize private sector businesses to relocate to Wasilla is a distinctly “fiscal conservative” thing to do, and all the good conservative governors in the lower 48 have used and are using similar strategies.
And Wasilla desperately needed to grow. Read Bristol Palin’s book “Not Afraid of Life,” and it becomes plain why. They were close enough to Anchorage that they should’ve been growing, but they weren’t, ostensibly because the town leadership didn’t have a clue and routinely wasted revenues on their pet, nonstarter, self-serving projects. Hence Palin’s early introduction to Crony Capitalism. Instead, they were a little nothing town with high property tax to support the incomes of town government. Sarah had become frustrated with their abuse of the people’s money and that was how she got to running for office in the first place.
And what do you get in these small rural towns that can’t grow? You get a youth culture afflicted with a boredom so intense it drags otherwise conservative communities into unhealthy preoccupations with alcohol and procreation. I know this because I live in one of those small rural towns and I know what they were dealing with first hand because we have the same problems here. Only we don’t have a Sarah Palin to get fed up with it and do something about it (Why not me? Yes, I am wrestling with that very question).
Enter the Sports Complex. If you’ve read the Palin books, you know that rural Alaska revolves around and stayed connected through a vibrant sports culture, and that having a major sports facility in a town A) puts a town on the cultural map, and therefore B) acts as a magnet to businesses that support the increased frequency and volume of activity in the town, C) improves family life by reducing the number of times a year conference athletes must travel hundreds of miles from home, and D) provides a nexus for youth activity and social life that gives them a healthy alternative to the more dangerous forms of rural boredom relief.
So it becomes clear why Palin, being responsive to the long-term needs and interests of the town, and understanding that no one individual in a small town like Wasilla could take on such a beneficial project by themselves, put the project idea before the people, and they agreed with her, eyes wide open, and voluntarily took it on.
As a result, about 57% of that 23.7M debt, roughly 14M, was debt the city took on voluntarily for the Sports Complex, for all the good reasons cited above (Admittedly, there were legal problems that raised the cost of the land above original expectations, but the town lawyer appears to be the culprit there, giving bad legal advice that was technically correct but did not account for unintended consequences of a third party trying to double deal on the property. Baaad lawyer.[say in voice of Lou Costello]) Most of the remainder of the 10M increase was due to a combination of the city voluntarily assuming debt to build infrastructure to draw new business, as well as the natural growth resulting from that plan actually working over the 8 year tenure of Palin as Mayor.
So, while some may be “concerned” over the raw debt numbers, said “concern” is misleading at best, because the increase in debt came in the context of planned, real growth in the town, with not only the consent but the good will of the governed, not unlike the increase in debt undertaken by a small, stagnant business that decides to take out a loan so it can grow. And if the business plan behind the loan works, and the debt can pay for itself with the resulting growth, then the risk was worth it, which appears to have been the case for the people of Wasilla. I further understand they are ahead of schedule on paying down the debt, due to corresponding growth in revenues.
Kudos, Mrs. Palin.
1. Don’t ever attack West Virginia again (they are tougher than you are there)
2. You are a classless sack of ...
So did I. Have you had a teenage daughter? I have. Do you understand the balance you have to strike between being the ever vigilant protector of her virtue and teaching her how to make her own good judgments when mom and dad wont be there to interfere (as in dorm life, a good parent's nightmare)? Palin's soft handling of it did accomplish the objective. Easy to keep rules were set, those rules were broken, a reprimand issued, and a restoration of the peace before any serious consequences ensued. Very typical sequence of events for good parenting of a strong-willed teenager.
Oh, good to know. And since I and many here don't WATCH and HEAR the idiot box, perhaps you can educate us as to the latest dirt inside the Brangelina household, which contains even more daughters, and along that real life potential of even more scandalous parental stunts that meet your standards of condemnation!
By your own admission, Willow got busted.
Bristol lied to her mother. Condemn Sarah for it if you wish, but don’t try to make the accusation that Bristol got pregnant in Sarah’s house because Sarah wasn’t paying attention. That’s just assinine.
Excuse me! Stereotype much?
Source please.
Excuse me! Stereotype much? As a professional with a Master's degree, that is so insulting to me. Your posts indicate an age of about 14.....maybe 10, regardless of what your age number may be.
Or through Bachmann, Cain, or Perry.
Or Romney.
Or Obama for that matter.
Don't be an idiot. The statement I made has no negative connotations about WV whatsoever. The last time I bothered to think about it I concluded that probably every state in the Union has trailer park communities. For someone with a Master's Degree your reading comprehension skills are woefully deficient. What's your degree in? Social Work, or Education?
Which may help explain why now 3/4s of republicans and 2/3s of tea party members want her to stay on the sidelines.
>>> Source please.
Since you ask. This McClatchy-Marist poll was posted in half a dozen threads this week to show how well Palin was doing, but always carefully omitting the bad news:
” By 72 percent to 24 percent, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents do not want Palin to run for president in 2012. Even among tea party supporters - a group that likes Palin - 68 percent do not want her to run.”
In comparison, even Giuliani is more welcome to Republican voters:
“And by 58 percent to 32 percent, Republican voters do not want Giuliani, who ran and lost in 2008, to run in 2012.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/20/v-fullstory/2417008/poll-finds-obama-losing-ground.html
*sigh*
I know for a fact that the McClatchy news group hates Sarah Palin with a purple passion, and they own the Anchorage Daily News. A liberal rag unfit to buy or to use as bird cage liner.
They pay posters to comment on articles tp smear Sarah.
Sarah Palin is the cool spring water from an underground source, not the tepid pond scum that is being pumped around in mass and bottled and given to everyone.
My comments are for general reading and not aimed at any singular poster.
And that’s how you judge a political leader?
I don’t think Reagan had perfect control over his offspring either.
Focus on what’s relevant (and where they both compiled great records).
Self ping to good info resource post
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