Did Sarah Palin Tap Into Travel Allowances?
An Analysis of the Alaskan Governor’s Spending
Sep 9, 2008
Normally, the state allows governors to charge a daily allowance for each day spent on official business travel. Governor Palin apparently spent more than three hundred nights at her home in Wasilla and charged the Alaskan government for travel to and from Wasilla from Juneau. Travel statements that Sarah Palin herself filed are currently being analyzed. Sarah Palin has charged the Alaskan government nearly $44,000 in travel expenses for each night she spent at home in Wasilla with her husband and children.
Sarah Palin has made an effort to make a name for herself as being sharp with money and intensely frugal. In her speech at the Republican Convention last week she championed the fact that she put the state jet for sale on eBay, fired the chef in the governor’s mansion and drives herself to work each day. However, her spending record is coming under scrutiny after it has been revealed that even her husband, Todd and her children have been reimbursed by state taxpayers for trips between Wasilla and Juneau, Alaska.
Additionally, in 2007, Palin brought her daughter along to a conference in New York and stayed three nights in a hotel room that cost $700 per night. While Palin certainly is not the first politician to use taxpayers money in a less than honorable manner, her spending choices will surely come under intense scrutiny in the following weeks prior to the general election.
It also brings about the question: What special rights and privileges do the people who serve this country have? Should they get to use public tax money to stay in fancy hotels and eat in prime restaurants? Should it be considered their right, as one of the select elite chosen to lead the country? Do most "regular people" get to charge their employers for gas money driving to and from work? After all, thousands of Americans commute to work every day. Do most "regular people" get free meals and accommodations at taxpayer’s expense? Nevertheless, most of the politicians vying for that magic spot come November are maintaining that they are in touch with "regular people."
Sarah Palin will surely have to defend herself against criticism of her monetary record. She will be forced to contend with many who will demand an explanation of how she could file her own travel expenses for a simple commute between Juneau and Wasilla. It is what she says next that matters now.
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