What does Sarah Palin's executive experience at Wasilla City Hall tell us about her management style and political philosophy?
Sarah Palin's stint in city government in Wasilla, a city of under 7,000, constitutes the bulk of her resume. She served on the city council from 1992-1996 and as mayor from 1996-2002. Since her two three-year terms as mayor have been touted as the biggest part of an "executive experience" package Barack Obama and Joe Biden sadly lack, I thought I'd examine her time at Wasilla city hall(see pics here) for clues to her managment style and political philosophy.
How big a deal was being mayor of a town the Anchorage Daily News describes as "not necessarily an aesthetic crown jewel", its section of the Parks Highway a "long snake of stores" that made Wasilla the "Mat-Su area's commercial hub"?
Not much of a challenge at all, according to Sarah herself:"It's not rocket science. It's $6 million and 53 employees." However, one of Palin's first decisions was to make room in the city budget to hire a $50,000-a-year deputy administrator, a position left unfilled under her predecessor. The person hired, John Cramer, had been on the staff of Lyda Green, the state senator from Wasilla who supported Palin in her run for mayor.
Palin also hired Cindy Roberts as public works director. Cindy had worked for former Gov. Wally Hickel, another Palin booster, in the Commerce Department, and was the wife of a Hickel aide. True, she didn't have an engineering background. But in Wasilla, apparently public works isn't "rocket science" either.
Palin Executive Lesson #1: Get help even for little jobs. Qualifications "nice" but not required.
Palin Executive Lesson #2: Friends help friends.
Wasilla did grow significantly during Palin's two mayoral terms. At least, the cost of running its government did, rising 49% excluding capital projects and debt. Palin also broke from fiscal-conservative orthodoxy by raising taxes. As a member of the city council and then as mayor, Palin supported increased sales taxes, including a half-percent sales tax to build a $15 million multi-use indoor ice arena. (As of late 2006,the arena was not breaking even and received a $125,000 subsidy from the state, down from $600,000 the prior year.) Shockingly, raising taxes actually did go a long way towards paying for a burgeoning city government: annual sales tax revenue rose half a million dollars.
And, showing she had her priorities straight, Palin also cut costs, shrinking the local museum's budget and cutting off any talk of a new library.
But the sales taxes didn't just help build a state-subsidized skating rink. Because the sales taxes were predominately paid by outsiders coming to Wasilla to shop, Palin was able to cut local property taxes by three-quarters.
Palin Executive Lesson #3: When it comes to government, the bigger the better. You can hire more friends!
Palin Executive Lesson #4: Whenever possible, use mostly poor outsiders to reduce the tax burden of local property owners and build a really cool ice arena.
Palin Executive Lesson #4: Less reading and science, people. More skating!
Attracting and keeping the big-box stores that generate rising sales tax revenue meant improving sewer and water lines and roads, daunting projects requiring more than a tithe from Walmart shoppers. And this is where the myth of Sarah Palin, clean-government reformer and earmark foe, takes a real beating.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin pushed for bonds to pay for infrastructure projects. Left out of their story, however, was a revelation made today in the L.A. Times (link below). Palin, stern opponent of easy money from Washington, hired a Washington lobbyist, Steven Silver, to get Wasilla it's fair share of - Alaska's earmarks. Silver had been an aide to Ted Stevens, and the hiring obviously paid off:
After he was hired, the city obtained funding for several projects, including a city bus facility that received an earmark valued at $600,000 in 2002. That year a local water and sewer project received $1.5 million in federal earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog organization.
Palin Executive Lesson #5: What's not to like about free money?
Palin Executive Lesson #6: Friends, friends, friends!
What can we conclude about Sarah Palin's executive ability? That as mayor, she was surprisingly effective at achieving what appear to be two contradictory goals: growing local government, and cutting local taxes.
Summarizing the wisdom behind Palin's Executive Lessons, it appears Palin in fact discovered what might be the Golden Rule, the Grand Unified Theory, of local government, maybe all government:
Tax outsiders. Benefit friends.
As I've documented in my Dairygate/Mat Maid posts, as governor Palin put her newly acquired wisdom to good use, making liberal, even reckless use of state and Federal funds to help out a few key Wasilla-area locals. Even her conversion to the anti-earmark cause was something of a con: the money for the "bridge to nowhere" still went, earkmark-less, to Alaska. An access road leading to the site of that (temporarily?)abandoned bridge is still being built.
I see no reason to believe Palin would behave any differently once in Washington. She will insure that Federal funds in some form continue to flow disproportionately to her home turf. Wasilla First will simply morph into Alaska First. This is what she knows, and the folks back home that raised her and that count on her expect nothing less.
It's even possible that, as a long-time friend of the Alaskan Independence Party (see below), she will fulfill the dream of many Alaskans: succession from the Lower 48, and the total independence that nationalized oil revenues will insure.
What is beyond doubt is that electing John McCain and Sarah Polin will prove beneficial to one slightly crooked but very savvy state.
city hall pics
LA Times
Dairygate/Mat Maid
Alaska Independence Party