Palin's AK earmarks: “more, per person, than any other state.”

[rainbow4321]

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/palin_earmarks.html





The Seattle Times reported yesterday that she submitted 31 earmark requests totaling $197 million in the current (FY2009) budget cycle. According to that paper, it was “more, per person, than any other state.”

The Washington Post reports that in 2000, Palin took an extraordinary step as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town that had fewer than 5,500 residents—she hired a Washington lobbyist to seek congressional earmarks. According to the Post, she won a total of $6.1 million in earmarks for the city of Wasilla in 2002.

A review of the Taxpayers for Common Sense database from which the Post derived that number indicates that 2002 was actually a subpar year for Palin. Over the course of her four years she sought earmarks as city mayor and won an average of $6.7 million a year.

<snip>


While Sara Palin’s constituents in Wasilla were getting about 20 times the national average in earmarked federal funding, McCain’s constituents in Arizona were getting less than half the national average. The data indicates that if Arizona had matched the national average, the state would have, in the current fiscal year, received more than $133 million dollars in additional federal investments in schools, hospitals, roads, and so forth. In fact, the database indicates that Arizona rates dead last among the 50 states in per capita earmarked funds at $18.70 per person. This is despite the best efforts of Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who is also an opponent of the earmarking process, but unwilling to give up earmarked funds to other states just to protect rhetorical high ground.

[panader0]

1. You see where I live don't you?

Great find. Just another issue mcbush can't use anymore.