- During her six years as mayor of Wasilla, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent.
- During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent.
- She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food.
- The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
- The huge increases in tax revenue during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list, though — borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt but left it with indebtedness of more than $22 million.
In her tenure as mayor she tried to have several books banned from the public library. When the librarian refused, Governor Palin tried to have her fired. Thankfully, the rest of the town did not support Palin in this endeavor and she was unsuccessful. I haven't been able to find a list of the books she supposedly wanted banned, due to religious reasons. There is a list out there but it may not be entirely accurate. I have to say I thought of Jonah Goldberg and chuckled when I read this part of the story.
Help me out here, folks. I thought conservatives were about less spending, lower taxes, and reduced government in people's lives. How does the information above jibe with any of those tenets?
Reading further in the article, the answer becomes clear.
She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.
Ah, now I know why they like her:)