Palin charges the state per diem while at home

[RecycleMichael]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post. The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so. Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as a crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause. Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said. "As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events."

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said. Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses and $19,000 for her husband's. Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300. Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation. One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo.

Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem [for] the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5."

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for a flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife.

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

"She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well," said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. "Some do, some don't."

Leighow said that the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him. "And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge. But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel.


That sure seems shady to me. Charging the state for travel per diem while staying at home seems unethical to me.

Flying your kids around on state expense seems a bit extravagent as well. I guess the taxpayers are happy she only has five kids.

The process is apparently not illegal, but spending $11,000 of taxpayer money to fly your seven-year-old daughter around probably should be.

[Friendly Bear]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html?hpid%3Dtopnews#8834;=AR

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post. The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so. Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as a crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause. Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said. "As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events."

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said. Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses and $19,000 for her husband's. Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300. Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation. One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo.

Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem [for] the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5."

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for a flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife.

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

"She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well," said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. "Some do, some don't."

Leighow said that the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him. "And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge. But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel.


That sure seems shady to me. Charging the state for travel per diem while staying at home seems unethical to me.

Flying your kids around on state expense seems a bit extravagent as well. I guess the taxpayers are happy she only has five kids.

The process is apparently not illegal, but spending $11,000 of taxpayer money to fly your seven-year-old daughter around probably should be.

Nice try in pushing another of your persistent Palin smears, but the facts state she scrupulously followed the Alaska state government travel rules.  

As governor, her home is Juneau.

She was travelling on official business when she left Juneau. Hence, she could claim Per Diem when she was in travel status, even to Wasilla.

Sounds like the State actually got a break.

She could have also charged Equivalent Lodging Expense for staying at her Wasilla residence.  Many government and business travel regulations allow such charges.

But she didn't, did she?

Saving the Taxpayers money, again.

Go, Girl!

[RecycleMichael]

Sarah Palin did not break the law.

She did however use every way possible to charge the taxpayers to fly her family all over the state.

Yes, there is an official governor's mansion in Juneau. The fact that she charged the taxpayers for not staying there is hypocritical. She stayed away from the mansion 312 nights out of 19 months.  

So the taxpayers both paid provided with with a residence and paid her to not stay there. When she did stay there, they paid to fly her family in.

If a democrat had spent $44,000 to fly their family around, you would be screaming bloody murder.

She is being exposed for being a hypocrite. She isn't going to cut waste in government spending, she is going to charge the taxpayers to fly and feed her family.

That is exactly what we don't need in Washington.

[iplaw]

Boo hoo.  I bet she's farted in an elevator before too...

I'd love to see you critique and research your party's nominees so thoroughly.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

If a democrat had spent $44,000 to fly their family around, you would be screaming bloody murder.

Actually no.  Republicans don't seem near as infatuated with pettiness as Democrats are.

I certainly sympathize though.  If I were you and my candidate had picked such a poor running mate, I'd be sweeping dust out from under the rug too.  I'd feel chump-changed.

I know there have to be a lot of Obama supporters who are upset he got duped into thinking he needed Biden's "foreign policy experience" to get him elected.  He effed up big time by not selecting Hillary.  She knows better than anyone else how the White House works and was probably the most well-informed First Lady we've ever had.

If Obama wanted a veteran on his team, he should have picked someone who knows the executive branch, not someone who only seems to know a bunch of lobbyists.

[iplaw]

I don't remember him crying when Pelosi wanted to "supersize" her private jet at a huge cost to the taxpayer.

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

If a democrat had spent $44,000 to fly their family around, you would be screaming bloody murder.

Actually no.  Republicans don't seem near as infatuated with pettiness as Democrats are.

I certainly sympathize though.  If I were you and my candidate had picked such a poor running mate, I'd be sweeping dust out from under the rug too.  I'd feel chump-changed.

I know there have to be a lot of Obama supporters who are upset he got duped into thinking he needed Biden's "foreign policy experience" to get him elected.  He effed up big time by not selecting Hillary.  She knows better than anyone else how the White House works and was probably the most well-informed First Lady we've ever had.

If Obama wanted a veteran on his team, he should have picked someone who knows the executive branch, not someone who only seems to know a bunch of lobbyists.

Get serious. The smearguns were loaded, dialed in and locked down for Hillary long ago. The argument that Bill came with the package was like getting free kool-aid with a pack of Camels.

How soon you forget the vulgarity that filled these threads when she was running for herself.

If we get McCain/Palin I would expect all hell to break loose in this country. Especially when the dust settles and Maverick's return to status quo becomes obvious. Everyone will hate everyone even worse and the brain drain will follow the capital drain to other countries. Anyone who really wants change cannot possibly believe that this old man and his collection of women from the set of 1960's "Mad Men" is a refreshing change.

Seriously, this has happened before in the twenties and again in the fifties. No system lasts forever and failing to change and fix this one assures its demise sooner rather than later whether its Ron Paul or Obama.

CHANGE IS NOT ELECTING SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH HIS PREDECESSOR! CHANGE IS SOMEONE, ANYONE, NEW AND DIFFERENT WHO DISAGREES WITH THE PREVIOUS OFFICE HOLDER!. Why is that so hard to understand?

[Conan71]

Change has little to do with selecting the 6th most senior U.S. Senator to be a running mate.  

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/656/

"In all my time in the United States Senate, and I want you to know there's only four senators senior to me, but Barack, there's still 44 older than me," Biden said. "I want you to know that part. But all kidding aside, of all my years in the Senate, I have never in my life seen Washington so broken."

(insignificant factoid: the story corrects this, he's actually 6th on seniority due to some sort of "tie-breaker" with Pete Dominici, who was sworn in the same day as Biden)

-----------------------------------------------

Did you listen to Sen. McCain's speech at the RNC?  Or were you one of those: "I don't need to hear his speech, I already know what he's going to say."

(I even harvested this from HuffPo)

-----------------------------------------------

"After we've won, we're going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again," he said, and he pledged to invite Democrats and independents to serve in his administration.

He mentioned Bush only in passing, as the leader who led the country through the days after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

And there was plenty for conservative Republicans to cheer _ from his pledge to free the country from the grip of its dependence on foreign oil, to a vow to have schools answer to parents and students rather than "unions and entrenched bureaucrats."

A man who has clashed repeatedly with Republicans in Congress, he said proudly, "I've been called a maverick. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. What it really means is I understand who I work for.

"I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you."

Thousands of red, white and blue balloons nestled in netting above the convention floor, to be released on cue for the traditional celebratory convention finale.

Given McCain's political mission, it was left to other Republicans to deliver much of the criticism aimed at Obama.

In the race for the White House, "It's not about building a record, it's about having one," said former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. "It's not about talking pretty, it's about talking straight."

McCain invoked the five years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison. "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said. "I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's."

------------------------------------------------

You know what I've come to like most about Sen. McCain?

His life has evolved to this.  He didn't start out running for President in high school and carefully craft his life to become President.

Sen. Obama feels manufactured to me.  I still cannot get over the glaring mistake in choosing an old-line corrupt politician for a running mate when his campaign buzzword has been "change".

[pmcalk]

Maybe being away from Juneau half the times is the real reason she fired the Gourmet chef.

Ooops.  Guess she didn't really fire her, but merely transferred her.

Well, at least she sold that plane on ebay & made a profit to cover those expenses.  Oh, wait... not true, either.

Not a fiscal conservative, not against the bridge to nowhere, really likes earmarks....is anything that the republicans have said about this woman actually true?  Other than she really likes mooseburgers, of course.

[iplaw]

quote:Originally posted by pmcalk

Maybe being away from Juneau half the times is the real reason she fired the Gourmet chef.

Ooops.  Guess she didn't really fire her, but merely transferred her.

Well, at least she sold that plane on ebay & made a profit to cover those expenses.  Oh, wait... not true, either.

Not a fiscal conservative, not against the bridge to nowhere, really likes earmarks....is anything that the republicans have said about this woman actually true?  Other than she really likes mooseburgers, of course.

She never claimed that she sold the plane on ebay.  She said she LISTED it on ebay.  She eventually had it sold by other means because it didn't sell on ebay.

It's called "listening skills" and "reading skills" folks; valuable skills that should be tried once and a while.

[FOTD]

Why do you support liars?

Palin is a liar.

She's Dumbya in a dress......

[iplaw]

Who keeps farting in here?  It's burning my eyes...

[FOTD]

If your head wasn't up your donkey you'd figure that out......

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

Why do you support liars?

Palin is a liar.

She's Dumbya in a dress......

What's the deal?

You, Ruf, and Waterboy all keep channeling MichaelC/Neptune.

LIAR!!!

[iplaw]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

If your head wasn't up your donkey you'd figure that out......

I know that smell now.  It's the waft of the FauxTurd...