A number of people have pointed to this David Talbot article describing the bordello-red wallpaper Sarah Palin illegally plastered onto the walls of her mayoral office. But that’s not the most important part of the article. While Palin’s poor decorating taste offers one more piece of evidence she abuses power, her decision to redecorate is still an issue between the residents of Wasilla, who paid for the tacky makeover, and their former mayor.
Not so Palin’s reportedly ego-driven decision to build an emergency dispatch center for Wasilla.
Local officials are also highly critical of Palin’s decision to build an emergency dispatch center — even though Wasilla and nearby Palmer already shared the costs of an emergency operation for the Mat-Su Valley. As a result of the duplication, there are now two expensive operations for an area with 85,000 people, while the city of Anchorage, with a population of over 300,000, makes do with one emergency station.
"Don’t tell me about earmarks," snorts a borough official. "Because of Palin’s ego, she couldn’t stand the idea of sharing an emergency dispatch operation with Palmer, which has been Wasilla’s town rival ever since her high school basketball days. So she ran to [Senator] Ted Stevens to get an earmark for her own system. Now we have two expensive emergency systems and both are losing money. She’s no budget cutter — give me a break. She’s just the opposite." [my emphasis]
You see, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, you and I paid $1 million for that dispatch center in 2002, and another $750,000 in 2003, all because Sarah Palin has an insecurity complex about Palmer, left over from her high school basketball days. It was a terrible policy decision–one the Mat-Su borough, which has to operate the center, is still hemorrhaging money over. And it was decision that owes everything to Palin’s then cozy relationship with indicted Senator, Ted Stevens (immediately after Uncle Toobz got Sarah her dispatch center money, she served as Director of Stevens’ Excellence in Public Service 527, channeling corporate money into the Alaska Republican Party). You and I paid $1,750,000 in Stevens-tied earmarks so Sarah Palin could boast her home town was as good as the town next door.
As early as seven years ago, Sarah Palin was already corruptly screwing you and me I with her bad policy decisions.
Update: Thanks to brendanx for correcting really stupid grammar errors.