Palin left town of Wasilla $20 million in debt

[Whateverdude]

Check out the link, according to Libs."politico has a sterling rep for neutrality"

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12987.html

Hey everybody.

I saw the original $20M claim and then I read another comment on a lower counter-claim. I'm sure people that are unsure about politico as a source would want some confirmation. I'm actually amazed that I'm the first response on some websites with the actual numbers. I wish people actually did the work and posted it instead of being beligerent and assuming they are right. Anyway, I wanted to investigate for myself, so I checked out the Ciy of Wasilla website. I downloaded the 1996 and 2003 financial statements in PDF form and checked out the liabilities section for bonds payable and notes payable.

RESULT: Total bonds & notes payable increased under Mayor Palin's watch by $22,970,497 (from $1,115,985 in 1996 to $24,086,482 in 2003).

1996: Total bonds & notes payable = $1,115,985
- Total bonds payable = $1,115,985 (General Long-term debt only)
- Total notes payable = $0

2003: Total bonds & notes payable = $24,086,482
- Total bonds payable = $19,826,207 ($13,927,769 Enterprise + $5,898,438 General Long-term debt)
- Total notes payable = $4,260,275 (Enterprise only)

This is getting interesting. Palin burdened a town of 5,469 people with $22,970,497 of debt. Let's break out that calculator again...That comes out to $4200/person! Ouch!!!

I also saw another claim that she raised taxes from 2% to 2.5% for a hockey rink. Does anyone know the relationship of the rink to the debt? This thread had the first mentions of capital projects beyond the rink for the train station If it accounted for all the debt, each person would have to spend $840,000/year ($4200/0.5%). I apparently need to move to Wasilla ;-) Maybe not so bad if it was payed for with a 10 year loan (with increase of 0.5% @ $84,000/year sales). There still seems to be a gap, though, since the required sales are still about 3x high... Can municipalities request 30 year bonds? If so, maybe it's not a problem.

<Getting on soapbox>

I guess you can't be a hockey mom without the government paying for your hockey rink ;-) It looks like the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex seats 2500 people. You can check out pictures here: http://alaskarama.com/musc/front.htm

That capacity is 46% of the town! I imagine it's not too hard to find a seat for the game. Such a shame, too, since I thought Alaska was cold enough that lakes actually froze during the winter! Must be nice when the rest of us are struggling with offshoring, outsourcing, medical coverage, and education costs to be able to have 1 sporting event seat for every 2 residents! Just for reference, the city I'm in has 50x the population size of Wasilla and is potentially shuttering it's $40M stadium which seats 11,000 people. The relative costs per taxpayer are much less (1 seat per 20 people) but responsible government still questions the cost-benefit analysis. An order of magnitude more expensive proposal would never have made it past a financial controller's office or mayor that had the common sense to govern.

If she's blatantly lieing about her hometown's audited and reported finances, I'm going to be very suspicious about her other claims as well. If the lieing starts there, how far will it go if they get elected?

I don't know about you folks, but I can't afford to give McCain-Palin $4200/year for an idiotic hair-brained idea of theirs. Wars ain't cheap ya know. I'm sure we can just put it on the ol' Federal charge card for our kids to pay. For repayment later, I'm sure the Chinese won't mind taking ownership of more American industry and hollowing out our economy's jobs in the process.

I also personally have trouble trusting people who are not humble. I guess lieing and tasteless discourse go hand-in-hand. The speech just left a bad taste in my mouth.

<Getting off soapbox>


Sources:
Financial statements from:
http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?

Population from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasilla,_Alaska

Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex capacity from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasilla_Multi-Use_Sports_Complex

Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex pictures from:
http://alaskarama.com/musc/

 

[Not Amused]

And your point is?

Not everyone wholesale rejects socialism. I for one enjoy paying taxes so my kids get an education. I love the roads I drive on to get there, paid for by my property taxes. I'd really love a moderate increase in taxes for the superwealthy...like..oh...BigOil for starters, to pay for socialized medical care. I like the police that keep my community safe...paid for by a socialist tax disbursement also..

And the military who keep the whole country guarded. Great socialist program there too come to think of it.

I told you before, the only government that is a danger is a pure one. The marriage Canada has between socialism/capitalism and democracy is one of the best examples I can think of. I wish they'd let me in!...lol... No, they don't have a "perfect" system, but they chisel away at it with their democratic arm and keep honing it. That's the best any humans could do..

Our own country has the same system. Oh, yes we do.. Only it's way too heavy on the capitalism side and quite thin on the socialism side. That's when you get an extreme division of the classes and the backbone disappears (the middle class).

The neocons who seem to have a obsessive love affair with pure capitalism, also brandish the Bible whenever it's handy. One of the edicts of a good christian is to "be thy brother's keeper". Well folks, it takes money to do that. A little pinch of socialism is healthy and puts the money where the mouth is.

Intelligent Post Sillhouette.

I do often see a similar pattern within some who post here; the pattern being, that whenever someone mentions any of the combined economic/social systems (already in place in the US) in a positive manner, they must be one of those 'awful' socialists, whose only wish is to drag the country down.

The problem is, without said systems in place and made to work efficiently, the US would not/could not possibly continue to be the prosperous country it is, or was, perhaps I should say.

Real Conservatism has always embraced a 'pinch of socialism' as you put it, we should remember that Conservatism has always had a 'heart'.

If you remove this pinch of socialism; if you do not also expand as circumstance dictates, which the majority of American Republicans today would absolutely hate to see happen; in fact, would probably want to see even said 'pinch of socialism' already in place removed, everyone and everything, eventually falters.

We all know what happened when those in power said 'Let them eat cake'.

 

[overfiftyswifty]

Hey everybody.

I saw the original $20M claim and then I read another comment on a lower counter-claim. I'm sure people that are unsure about politico as a source would want some confirmation. I'm actually amazed that I'm the first response on some websites with the actual numbers. I wish people actually did the work and posted it instead of being beligerent and assuming they are right. Anyway, I wanted to investigate for myself, so I checked out the Ciy of Wasilla website. I downloaded the 1996 and 2003 financial statements in PDF form and checked out the liabilities section for bonds payable and notes payable.

RESULT: Total bonds & notes payable increased under Mayor Palin's watch by $22,970,497 (from $1,115,985 in 1996 to $24,086,482 in 2003).

1996: Total bonds & notes payable = $1,115,985
- Total bonds payable = $1,115,985 (General Long-term debt only)
- Total notes payable = $0

2003: Total bonds & notes payable = $24,086,482
- Total bonds payable = $19,826,207 ($13,927,769 Enterprise + $5,898,438 General Long-term debt)
- Total notes payable = $4,260,275 (Enterprise only)

This is getting interesting. Palin burdened a town of 5,469 people with $22,970,497 of debt. Let's break out that calculator again...That comes out to $4200/person! Ouch!!!

I also saw another claim that she raised taxes from 2% to 2.5% for a hockey rink. Does anyone know the relationship of the rink to the debt? This thread had the first mentions of capital projects beyond the rink for the train station If it accounted for all the debt, each person would have to spend $840,000/year ($4200/0.5%). I apparently need to move to Wasilla ;-) Maybe not so bad if it was payed for with a 10 year loan (with increase of 0.5% @ $84,000/year sales). There still seems to be a gap, though, since the required sales are still about 3x high... Can municipalities request 30 year bonds? If so, maybe it's not a problem.

<Getting on soapbox>

I guess you can't be a hockey mom without the government paying for your hockey rink ;-) It looks like the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex seats 2500 people. You can check out pictures here: http://alaskarama.com/musc/front.htm

That capacity is 46% of the town! I imagine it's not too hard to find a seat for the game. Such a shame, too, since I thought Alaska was cold enough that lakes actually froze during the winter! Must be nice when the rest of us are struggling with offshoring, outsourcing, medical coverage, and education costs to be able to have 1 sporting event seat for every 2 residents! Just for reference, the city I'm in has 50x the population size of Wasilla and is potentially shuttering it's $40M stadium which seats 11,000 people. The relative costs per taxpayer are much less (1 seat per 20 people) but responsible government still questions the cost-benefit analysis. An order of magnitude more expensive proposal would never have made it past a financial controller's office or mayor that had the common sense to govern.

If she's blatantly lieing about her hometown's audited and reported finances, I'm going to be very suspicious about her other claims as well. If the lieing starts there, how far will it go if they get elected?

I don't know about you folks, but I can't afford to give McCain-Palin $4200/year for an idiotic hair-brained idea of theirs. Wars ain't cheap ya know. I'm sure we can just put it on the ol' Federal charge card for our kids to pay. For repayment later, I'm sure the Chinese won't mind taking ownership of more American industry and hollowing out our economy's jobs in the process.

I also personally have trouble trusting people who are not humble. I guess lieing and tasteless discourse go hand-in-hand. The speech just left a bad taste in my mouth.

<Getting off soapbox>


Sources:
Financial statements from:
http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?

Population from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasilla,_Alaska

Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex capacity from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasilla_Multi-Use_Sports_Complex

Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex pictures from:
http://alaskarama.com/musc/

I'd like to respond to your post. I see that you referred to wikipedia as one of your sources. So while you were there, why didn't you research a little farther into the issue? According to wiki, the sports complex was a ballot issue. Which means the townspeople voted on it. To quote; "During her second term as mayor, Palin introduced a ballot measure proposing the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5% sales tax increase.[53] The $14.7 million Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex was built on time and under budget, but the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction.[53] The city's long-term debt grew from about $1 million to $25 million through voter-approved indebtedness of $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. A city council member defended the spending increases as being caused by the city's growth during that time." check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

 

[the annoying thing]

Palin was the mayor of Wasilla just 3 short years ago. Seems like she left the town a little present...a debt of $20 million. That works out, in a town of 5400, to approximately $3,700 per person.







A $20 million debt, the Steven's VECO scandal (Steven's offered his endorsement of her just yesterday), Troopergate, censorship of library books....this is all from Politico.com a site that generally leans to the right.

Palin may not have experience but she does carry baggage. McCain and the GOP are obviously trying to scramble the election by introducing a wild card, we'll see how it all works out.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12987.html

thats nothing to the debt biden will rack up

 

[Phoenix68]

This will all have already been vetted by the campaign and decided to be meaningless or have no basis.

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‘Hard-Core Fiscal Conservative’ Sarah Palin​

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