Sarah Palin is a socialist who redistributes the wealth

[moobu2]

She raised taxes on oil companies in Alaska, which isn’t a bad thing, and had checks issued to every Alaskan.

Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. That helped push the state's total oil revenue — from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties — to more than $10 billion, double the amount received last year.
While many other states are confronting big budget deficits because of the troubled economy, Alaska officials are in the enviable position of exploring new ways to spend the state's multibillion-dollar budget surplus.
Some of that new cash will end up in the wallets of Alaska's residents.
Palin's administration last week gained legislative approval for a special $1,200 payment to every Alaskan to help cope with gas prices, which are among the highest in the country.


The Seattle Times

[Blue_In_AK]

1. That was one of the good things she did as governor,

raising the taxes on the oil companies, and "spreading the wealth" around a little bit. She got these things passed with the help particularly of Democrats Hollis French and Les Gara in the legislature, who the McCain campaign has been busy trashing over the troopergate matter since her nomination. I doubt that they will be so quick to cooperate with her in the future.

[Essene]

3. she didnt spread the wealth. she just took money from the rest of USA

alaskans DONT PAY TAXES.

they are taking 75 cents for every dollar of oil pumped up there to literally pay themselves royalties to live up there.

i dont mind the regulatory stuff, but that's just entirely absurd.

[Orsino]

7. Meanwhile, guess what the oil companies do in other states to compensate?

We in the other 49 states are subsidizing this practice.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Alaska doesn't dictate the global price of oil.

[Orsino]

10. But they are first in line to take money from Big Oil...

...who passes that cost along to the rest of us.

[Essene]

2. that is an understatement. Alaska is like a middle eastern socialist daydream

1/3rd of jobs in alaska rely on federal funds

it is the #1 state in terms of pork-per-person

taxes are so high on oil/gas that people there DO NOT PAY TAXES but instead get PAID $3200 to live there.

palin actually sought to maintain a state-owned and run dairy industry.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. You're welcome to come live here

if you think you can handle it.

By the way, we DO pay federal taxes, including on our permanent fund dividend checks, plus property taxes, plus sales taxes in certain parts of the state.

[moobu2]

5. There isn’t any income tax though , right?

I had always heard there wasn’t any sales tax either, not to argue, because I don’t really know. I have family that lives there, and they’ve mentioned that they don’t pay sales taxes, but maybe they just live in an area that’s that way.

[Blue_In_AK]

6. You're right, no state income tax.

We don't have a sales tax here in Anchorage, but the Google tells me that 108 municipalities in Alaska do impose a sales tax ranging from 1% to 7%. What we save in taxes, we spend in fuel costs, food expenses, and shipping charges. Also our housing costs are a bit on the high side.

People in the Lower 48 like to get all offended about the fact that we have a permanent fund (which DOESN'T cost the rest of you anything, by the way, since we don't control the global price of oil) and the fact that we don't have a state income tax, but our cost of living is high nonetheless.

As far as federal spending, a lot of that goes to the military bases here, and highways, for instance, which are federally funded, cost what they cost, no matter how many people will be using them.

Here's a very good explanation of how the Alaska Permanent Fund works.

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/09/alaskas-permanent-fund-explained-for.html

[JFN1]

8. HA! Good one!

Main Entry: hyp·o·crite

Pronunciation: \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English ypocrite, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrita, from Greek hypokritēs actor, hypocrite, from hypokrinesthai

Date: 13th century

Definitions:
1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
3 : any Republican running for office or speaking in public