Governor Sarah Palin is a Fiscal Conservative

Ever since Governor Palin was named as the Republican vice presidential candidate, her adversaries have tried to make the case that she is not really a fiscal conservative.

They whine about her increased spending between the 2008 and 2009 budget, claiming that this proves she is not a fiscal conservative. Yes, spending did go up. Of course, state revenue almost doubled in her state at that time.

When this happens, it is important to not only put money in the bank and save it for a rainy day, which she did to the tune of $5 billion, but there is nothing wrong with increasing spending. The increased revenue needs to make it back into the hands of the people via services or a check. Governor Palin did both. The people of Alaska received an extra $1200 in addition to their Permanent fund checks, plus she increased spending on education and infrastructure projects. This is a good use of the extra revenue, in spite what the goof balls who call themselves “real conservatives” will tell you.

Of course we have all heard about the Bridge to Nowhere nonsense. To hear the liberals tell it, she did not really stop anything.

To that note… Do you see a bridge? No? Enough said.

You guys must know by now that I like numbers and am more of a policy wonk than anything else. Yes, I know I am a geek. What can I say?

What I have seen from Governor Palin is absolutely amazing to me. Although the media and Allahpundit will never give her credit, the fiscal discipline and the leadership shown by Governor Palin is absolutely amazing.

Follow along these numbers with me and you will see what I mean.

The sign of a real fiscal conservative is how they handle the difficult times. No doubt about it, we are facing some difficult times.

Did Governor Palin increase spending?

Absolutely not!

FY 2009 Operating Budget: $11,200,000,000 ($11.2B)
FY 2010 Operating Budget: $9,700,000,000 ($9.7B)

Net Cut in Operating Budget: $1,500,000,000

Total Percentage Cut in Operating Budget: 13.4%

FY 2009 Capital Budget: $2,632,000,000 (after Governor Palin vetoed $268 million)
FY 2010 Capital Budget: $1,800,000,000

Net Cut in the Capital Budget: $832,000,000

Total Percentage Cut in Capital Budget: 31.7%

Overall FY 2009 Budget: $13,832,000,000
Overall Proposed FY 2010 Budget: $11,500,000,000

Net Reduction in the Overall Budget: $2,332,000,000

Total Percentage Cut in Overall Budget: 16.8%

When it comes to budgets, this is a huge number. HUGE!

Keep in mind, this budget includes a large percentage of the stimulus funds in the operating and capital budgets. Some of the stimulus funds were inserted by the Governor (mostly in the capital budget) and the rest inserted by the state legislature (mostly in the operating budget).

The point of the stimulus funds from the federal government was to increase spending. President Obama believes that increasing government spending will create jobs -- at least that is the argument that he makes. Of course, that point is debatable. You can certainly understand that increasing infrastructure spending in the capital improvements budget does indeed create jobs, but it is hard to understand how expanding unemployment benefits actually creates one single job.

Clearly Governor Palin managed to make dramatic cuts to the budget beyond President Obama's stimulus funds. I remember thinking and hoping that if Governor Palin was forced to take the stimulus funds for either political reasons or mandated laws, she would still find a way to make cuts to her budget.

Mission accomplished.

If Governor Palin had followed the same path as most governors, she would end up spending as much as she did last year, $13.83 billion plus another $1 billion bringing her budget to almost $15 billion.

Governor Palin's fiscally conservative ways would not allow her to do this. She had plenty of opportunities to make excuses and continue on spending money. She knows that attempting to spend money with the price of oil at what it is today is fiscally irresponsible.

I see that today, the Fairbanks News-Miner is actually suggesting that the Governor veto some of the federal stimulus funds via regular budget cuts.

As you can see by these numbers, she has actually already done that. However, Governor Palin still has the power to make even more cuts.

Amazingly, when her budget was handed to the state legislature for their input, her leadership abilities kicked in.

I know that there was a lot of fuss and muss about the disagreements between the state legislators and Governor Palin. The reality was, with the exception of the stimulus funds and the $9 million for the in-state gas line, the state legislators pretty much fell in line behind the governor. There were no wild or dramatic increases or decreases. She proposed her budget, and they made very few changes.

I have to stop for a moment and question the reasoning behind the $9 million kerfuffle on the in-state gas line during the last week of the legislative season. It is like the legislature decided to be a pain, just to be a pain. The $9 million amounts to a .0775% of the budget! Yes, less than 1% of the budget!

What were the legislators thinking? Whew! The governor almost got away with something there. She only needs $7 million this year for that project!

In the end, the liberals and the folks that call themselves "real fiscal conservatives" can spin, spit, saber rattle, spew and prattle on about Governor Palin not being a real fiscal conservative, but the numbers do not bear out their falsified facts.

When you hear this just point them to the real numbers. Numbers don't lie, but those folks filled with Palin Derangement Syndrome do lie.

Governor Sarah Palin is a fiscal conservative.

UPDATE: FYI...

FY 2007 Operating Budget (Murkowski's Budget): $11,697,400,000

FY 2008 Operating Budget (Palin's Budget): $9,813,000,000