Perspective on Palin

ALASKA — With her first year as Alaska governor under her belt, Gov. Sarah Palin’s political star continues to rise.

When Palin first announced her intention to run for governor in 2006, some Alaska residents questioned her experience as a political leader. While some wondered if two terms on the Wasilla City Council and two terms as mayor were enough, Palin believed her Wasilla roots gave her a solid foundation to be the state’s top official.

After her first year in office, Palin looks back on an eventful 2007 that saw her call a special session of the Legislature to repeal the Petroleum Profits Tax, make budget cuts and work with a Legislature embroiled in political scandal.

“The most valuable part of my roots being here is that groundedness that comes from being part of the Valley,” Palin said. “This is an unpretentious, hard-working population that isn’t expecting government to provide.”

Looking back over her first year in office, Palin said she believes it was one of success and hard work with a focus on long-term issues that will have lasting impacts on the state and residents.

“People who have been around Alaska politics for so long tell us it’s been an amazing year that it was so full of success in the 12 months, as compared to other administration terms that went on four years,” Palin said. “With ACES, AGIA and the ethics reform, just by tackling some long-term challenges it was very successful.”

Ethics reform

When elected in 2006, Palin said she first stepped up and called for ethics reform. While some legislators fought against the reform, she said she stuck to her guns knowing it was a much-needed move for Alaska.

“It’s been extremely important, and I think what was lacking and welcomed in the state and in the Legislature was to have a administration that would lead on that issue, to clean it up, to demand ethics reform, and that’s what we did,” she said.

The recent corruption cases of former state lawmakers, including former Wasilla Rep. Vic Kohring, have had an impact on government and public perception, Palin said, calling the situation heartbreaking. With a strong love for Alaska and its residents, she said it is sad when she hears Americans questioning Alaska government.

Ethics reform doesn’t stop with adopting the initial bill, she said. Reform is a long-standing issue her administration will continue to address.

“The FBI probes and the corruption trials have highlighted for the public those things that have been amiss down in Juneau,” the governor said. “It’s just really confirmed and solidified our commitment to clean things up and see reform.”

Although ethics reform is one the top accomplishments of Palin’s first year, she said it is something that should be expected from government. Overall, she believes creating a “gas line vehicle” is her largest accomplishment so far.

“It has created a model, called AGIA {Alaska Gasline Inducement Act}, that has already brought us closer to tapping Alaska’s [natural] gas —for Alaska’s and the nation’s interest — than any model or plan in our state’s history,” she said.

AGIA

Palin said AGIA has opened a lot of doors for Alaska and interested companies. Through AGIA, competition in the process will be fair and provide many opportunities for Alaskans and other parties involved with the gas line.

“We’ve seen great input and great participation,” she said of the program. “That’s been a huge accomplishment, because so many people told us that we wouldn’t be able to accomplish that, especially not in first year, not with the predicted industry rhetoric that was negative and surrounded the AGIA process. With the help of a lot of good citizens and legislators we succeeded there.”

Looking forward

Looking to Alaska’s future and another three years, Palin said her administration is working to minimize budgets to provide a secure financial future for the state and its residents. In the past, the state’s budget has increased by about 14 percent a year. With that in mind, the administration has presented a 2009 fiscal year budget that has reduced that increase by 10 percent.

“We’ve been on a 14-percent trajectory increase of budgets in the state of Alaska,” she said. “We pushed each one of our departments really hard to ratchet that down to contain growth.”

Although the 2009 fiscal year budget is at a 4-percent increase, Palin said the reduction to the trend is encouraging and she plans to continue on a path of budget reduction.

“We have to do this because it’s unfair to the next generation of Alaskans to get ourselves into a position of handing them a budget that the state is not going to be able to afford,” she said.

In addition to reducing budgets and slowing government growth, Palin said saving money is a vital part of Alaska’s future. With federal monies diminishing, it is necessary to watch government spending and save oil surplus.

Preparing for the future also includes providing young people with better educational opportunities. To accomplish this, Palin has introduced a three-year education funding plan that provides more than $1 billion in educational funding for each of the three years.

“With our growing school population our three-year education funding plan for the entire state will really positively affect the Valley,” Palin said. “We only have three more years in this term and we want to make sure what we do here in these years is really creating a good base for long-term solutions for education funding.”

Although the plan will provide funding for the state, Palin said the Valley has a unique education situation. While some areas have seen a drop in growth, the Valley continues on a path of increasing demand for education services.

Valley Issues

Along with school funding, one Valley issue Palin has been working on during her time as governor has been Matanuska Maid Dairy.

Although the governor has received some criticism about how the state handled Mat Maid’s situation, which eventually led to its closing in December, Palin said she came into office with a herd of problems surrounding the state-owned dairy.

“When we got in there, obviously Mat Maid was broken,” Palin said. “It was given a death sentence and we had to give it a second look.”

Despite past problems, Palin said that the new Creamery Board has worked diligently to do what it could for Matanuska Maid. In June 2007, Palin replaced the entire state Agriculture and Conservation Board, which is also the Creamery Board.

“I wanted people who would give it a fresh look and do what they can — folks whose heart will be in this — to either revitalize Mat Maid under its present configuration or get it ready for the private sector’s hands, and they have succeeded,” she said. “I’ve never seen a more dedicated group than this group, which is trying to find solutions to huge challenges in Alaska’s agriculture industry.”

Palin said the agriculture industry overall needs to be revitalized. With Alaska isolated from major Outside food sources, the state needs to consider its agricultural options.

“If we’re serious about being more self-sufficient and more secure as a state, agriculture has got to play a greater role in that,” she said.

Overall, Governor Palin said Alaska’s future is promising. Gas and oil development is heading in the right direction, ethics reform is in place and education will receive needed funding.

“I personally will never pretend to have all the answers, and that’s why hearing from the public on our issues is so important to me,” the governor said. “We have the right people in place in so many of these positions who are serving for the right reasons. That allows me great confidence to know that 2008 is going to be a very good year for Alaska.”