From Bloomberg.com: Palin Boosted Oil-Company Taxes While Alaska Had Budget Surplus
Alaska has no state income, property or sales tax.
“It’s like Dubai. It gets enormous royalties and taxes and fees of various types from oil,” said Chris Edwards, an economist and state budget expert at the Cato Institute, a Washington group that advocates low taxes and small government.
It blows my mind that the Republicans put forth Palin as a “tax-cutter” when Alaska has no state income, property, or sales tax. In fact Alaska’s economy is so different than the rest of the nation, anything she might have learned as governor really doesn’t apply anywhere else.
She’s never had to make a tough choice on spending because of the near limitless supply of money coming in from taxes from high oil prices.
2 Comments
Read the entire article. She was doing what was best for the citizens of her state – a reasonable expectation. Giving back $1200 to every citizen says a lot about her ability.
Yes, giving away money is a sign of ability.
I did read the whole article. I have no problems with what she did for Alaska and Alaska’s citizens, I expect the governor to do what’s best for their state.
But if she didn’t save the tax payers money, she shouldn’t say it. The constant “Thanks, but no thanks line” she uses is a total lie.
Plus the fact as the article says, the state gets all its money from the oil companies. Creating a budget with nearly unlimited funds isn’t hard at all. Just look at Dubai, Saudi Arabia, etc. It’s easy to be generous when you have the money at hand.