Palin spent more than $50K in taxpayer funds to remodel her mansion and office in Juneau

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Sarah Palin spends $50G on remodel jobs



http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/2008/view/2008_10_26_Sarah_Palin_spends__50G_on_remodel_jobs/srvc=home&position=also

By Laura Crimaldi
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - Updated 14h ago

GOP vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin spent more than $51,000 in taxpayer funds to remodel the governor’s Anchorage office suite and spruce up her mansion and office in Juneau, a Herald review of expense records shows.

Palin spent most of the funds, $45,137, in April to build and furnish three offices inside her suite at the Robert B. Atwood Building in Anchorage, records show.

In June 2007, Palin spent $5,380 for labor and materials on a 72-inch wooden display case in her Juneau office. The case houses a football and basketball signed by players from championship high school teams, native artwork, a Klondike Trail mug and other items, said gubernatorial spokesman William D. McAllister.

Another $1,205 was spent in February 2007 on blinds for an arched window and stairwell at the governor’s mansion in Juneau.

The McCain-Palin campaign said it would characterize the remodeling expenses as “routine.”

“Gov. Palin has a long record of cutting wasteful spending, using her veto pen to eliminate nearly a half-billion dollars from the budget,” said Jeff Grappone, New England communications director. “She sold the state’s luxury jet, scrapped the governor’s personal chef and got rid of the personal driver.”

On the campaign trail, Palin has touted that record.

“I came to office promising to control spending by request if possible and by veto if necessary,” she said in her convention address.

The money spent for remodeling has not been previously publicized. Alaska government watchdogs said it did not change their opinion of the governor, who is well-regarded in a state infamous for its profligate pols.

[Glimmer of Hope]

1. That isn't very frugal or mavericky.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. She also cant rein in frivolous spending while spending frivolously

:rofl:

[BrklynLiberal]

5. She is frugal with HER money. The taxpayer's money is a different story...

[Occam Bandage]

3. Palin is the long-feared "welfare queen," living high off the taxpayer's dime.

Want to take your kids on a vacation? Bill it to the taxpayer. Want some pretty new blinds for your house? Bill it to the taxpayer. Feel like a six-figure shopping spree? Bill it to the taxpayer-funded campaign. Want a $40,000/mo makeup artist and a $20,000/mo hairstylist? Bill it to the taxpayer-funded campaign.

But God forbid we give poor mothers food stamps to feed their families. That's socialism, doncha know.

[Metta]

4. As Lenny Bruce said, "Even if they have pictures, deny it."

We haven't seen this level of corruption and malice so publically outed in a long time.

[zbird]

6. Those would be the mansion and office that she doesn't even use?

How much time has she spent in either one vs. time spent at home in Wasilla? Let's see, more than 300 nights spent in Wasilla in the first 19 months or so? How frugal of her.

[Eric J in MN]

7. If it were over a million, I could get more outraged. NT

NT

[Desertrose]

8. Its OK, when she's done she'll just give it to charity...

:shrug:

[progressivebydesign]

9. BTW- WTF is on her shoulders? An empoyee said it looked like a bordello when she finished..

she has staggeringly bad taste, apparently.

I think that Palin's political ambitions smack of a small town girl that watched too much Dynasty as a kid, and found that it was the only way to live like a Carrington. There is something very creepy about her... as though she's doing all of this for personal and financial gain, not because she wants to make things better for people.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. She spent $50,000 redecorating her Wasilla office too. If you viewed

the Daily Show clip of the interview with the current Wasilla Mayor, where there you can see part of the office, you have to scratch your head and say....huh???

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/17/palin_mayor/

Sept. 17, 2008 | WASILLA, Alaska -- Sarah Palin has been touting herself as fiscal watchdog throughout her political career. But Palin's tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was characterized by waste, cronyism and incompetence, according to government officials in the Matanuska Valley, where she began her fairy-tale political rise.

"Executive abilities? She doesn't have any," said former Wasilla City Council member Nick Carney, who selected and groomed Palin for her first political race in 1992 and served with her after her election to the City Council.

Four years later, the ambitious Palin won the Wasilla mayor's office -- after scorching the "tax and spend mentality" of her incumbent opponent. But Carney, Palin's estranged former mentor, and others in city hall were astounded when they found out about a lavish expenditure of Palin's own after her 1996 election. According to Carney, the newly elected mayor spent more than $50,000 in city funds to redecorate her office, without the council's authorization.

without authorization... those darn rules just don't apply to Queen Esther, do they?

continued at above link