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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jones" data-source="post: 395475" data-attributes="member: 4805">Here's a little more about her term as mayor:Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time) and less than two years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.During her mayoral administration, most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings, which had given rise to a recall campaign.Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative." During her six years as mayor, 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. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefitted 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. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? Or a new library? No. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex, which she rushed through, on a piece of property that the city didn't even have clear title to. That was still in litigation seven years later — to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in five to seven years without any borrowing.While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.The above is from a <a href="http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341" target="_blank">letter</a> written by Anne Kilkenny. Snopes just got a hold of it Friday, they have verified that it's authentic in so far as Ms Kilkenny really is a longtime resident of Wasilla and really did write the letter, but beyond that they haven't doublechecked her numbers(yet). This thing is making the rounds so I assume that someone will do that fairly soon. I could care less about the personal stuff, she and Ms Palin clearly aren't drinking buddies, but if her figures are accurate and not just half of the story, then it might be interesting.</blockquote>

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