Palin's Alaska is most subsidized state

The shrinking number of us who still like to read newspapers and editorial pages and think carefully about the qualifications and likely policy performance of political candidates should ponder this aspect of Sarah Palin’s experience and qualifications as governor of Alaska:

Alaska has no state income tax and no state sales tax. Of the $12.3 billion the state received in 2007, only $1.2 billion was paid directly by Alaskans, for costs such as fees, permits and service charges. Some $5.2 billion came from taxes and fees paid by the oil industry (and unless you think the oil companies eat that cost in reduced profits, that means those of us who buy their gas and other products actually pay it). An additional $3.9 billion was from dividends and interest on investments (made with money from oil?), and an additional $2 billion was from federal spending in Alaska.

And the federal government has been particularly nice to Alaska. According to Citizens Against Government Waste (a conservative watchdog group), Alaska ranks No. 1 in the union in 2008 in per-capita federal spending -- at $555.54 per person. Next highest is Hawaii at $220.63 per person.

But wait, there’s more.

Alaska gets so much outside money from what the rest of us pay at the pump and what we pay in federal taxes that it pays a dividend to its citizens each year. This year the dividend is $3,269 for every man, woman and child who has been a legal resident for at least a year and “intends to remain an Alaska resident indefinitely.” That can amount to a $13,076 gift for a family of four.

But it still wants more federal aid per person than any other state in the union.

Yet it is the governor of Alaska that the Republican Party offers us as a potential president now that our national debt has been run to $9 trillion, in some large part through the GOP’s own policies of looting, squandering, de-regulation and tax giveaways. Now this is a governor who is really ready to deal with financial hardship! And it is so in tune with the mind-set of American economic conservatives -- get as much as you can for yourself, anyway you can, and make somebody else pay for it.

If you want to check out the numbers, look up Alaska’s own Revenue Sources Book for fall, 2007, at http://www.tax.alaska.

gov/programs/documentviewer/

viewer.aspx?255; and Citizens Against Government Waste’s “Pig Book” at www.cagw.org under the reports or pig tabs; and the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Division at www.pfd.state.ak.us/.

I fear Gov. Palin’s principal qualification to be a candidate for vice president is her ability to be charming. She is the type of candidate particularly suited for a campaign that intends to seduce people with charisma and good looks and make them pay for it later.

Glenn Rainey is a professor of political science and public administration at Eastern Kentucky University. His research interests include electoral systems and the electoral college. Readers may write to him at: Department of Government, Eastern Kentucky University, 113 McCreary Hall, 521 Lancaster Avenue, Richmond, Ky. 40475-3021.