Comments on: Palin Claimed Travel Expenses for Nights at Home

By: lovingit

lovingit — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:39:25 +0000

Holy Smoke, fiddling on expenses is shameful – and she calls herself a reformer – b*llsh*t, she's just shining it on while the good times last. Sorry Baby – they will soon be over and it will be sayonara to you.

By: lovingit

lovingit — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:39:25 +0000

By: of courseobama

of courseobama — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:50:06 +0000

May I also put on record the hotels she stayed at were around $700.00/night….real conservative fiscal spending there Sarah….you certainly have public service at heart….welcome to the new lottery…running for VP.

By: diesel mcfadden

diesel mcfadden — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:31:52 +0000

hey matt. well, one thing is that the state specifies her 'home' duty station is juneau and i suspect it'd cost the state more than $1800/mo (or $900 if she's claiming half the days) to run the mansion even if that was just the chef she got rid of.

Overall, on the per diems, I don't get it. Why wouldn't you claim a per diem you job rules say you're entitled to? She's clearly traveling 800 miles back and forth, so ONE of the residences is going to be considered 'away'. She has to eat.

The rules say (fin.admin.state.ak.us/dof/travel/resource/rates.pdf) if you have two residences, one is considered "home" and when you're at the other, you're considered traveling get a daily per diem (food, incidentals, $60/day). For the purposes of reimbursement, the state says the governor's home is Juneau. I suppose they could have done it the other way around and said her home is Wasilla and then she'd be collecting a per diem in the governor's mansion which probably would look just as silly.

I've been away on business a lot. It'd be really unfair to have to pay for your own food and expenses in all locations when you're traveling. Shouldn't the employer have to pay a per diem for food and incidentals in ONE of the locations (wasilla or juneau)?

As far as the kids and spouse goes, i guess it's based on the event. it's probably the same for all senators, governors, etc. it's not like it's going to look good for the country to send Biden or Obama stag to some official dinner event and save on the airfare for their wives either.

And I'd say it'd be just as wrong to expect obama to personally pay (instead of the campaign) for michelle and the kids to go to the dnc in denver. what do you think? am i off here?

By: oregonian

oregonian — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:23:24 +0000

if she was really a reformer, she'd have already asked the AK legislators to remove this 'pay yourself to live at home' opportunity from the books.

But alas, any pork that benefits *me* isn't really pork, now is it?

By: Matthew DeLong

Matthew DeLong — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:55:36 +0000

I certainly did not accuse her of not working for 300 days. I'm not sure why you think I di. Palin chooses to live in Wasilla, which my TWI colleague Laura McGann reports is a 45-minute drive from Anchorage, where her official duties require her to be. How many hundreds of thousands, or probably millions, of Americans commute 45 minutes to and from work each day without compensation? I fail to see why it is unreasonable to expect a public official who claims to be on a mission to save her state money to set an example and not bill the state for expenses that result from her choice to not live where she works. I would refer you to the quote from former Gov. Knowles, cited above.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:10:17 +0000

Ummm. Apparently she has an office in Anchorage but no government lodgings there. She could pay for a hotel or she could commute back to her home in Wasilla. She did the latter. And you're accusing her of not working for 300 days of her governorship? What idiocy!