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By Seema Mehta Staff Writer. Seema Mehta. Follow Us twitter instagram email facebook. More From the Los Angeles Times. Just after he signed the new Petroleum Profits Tax, the FBI raided the offices of six legislators, in what became the biggest corruption scandal in state history.
During the legislative session, the FBI had hidden a video camera at the Baranof Hotel, in Juneau, in a suite that belonged to Bill Allen, a major power broker and the chief executive of Veco Corporation, an oil-services firm. Several were later sent to prison. In the Republican primary, Palin crushed Murkowski, delivering one of the worst defeats ever suffered by an incumbent governor anywhere. She went on to have little trouble dispatching Knowles, an oil-friendly Democrat. Maybe some others.
But the five-letter word that people in Alaska associated with her name was clean. P alin has gained a reputation for being erratic, undisciplined, not up to the job.
She began by confronting the two biggest issues in Alaska—the gas pipeline and the oil tax—and drove the policy process on both of them. After taking office in December , she kept her word and hired Tom Irwin, and other members of the Magnificent Seven. They devised a plan to attract someone other than the oil companies to build the pipeline, and they bid out the license to move ahead with it—to the deep displeasure of the oil producers, who vowed not to participate. Palin came under serious political pressure.
That spring, the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act sailed to passage, helped along by criminal indictments in the Veco scandal, which were handed down just as the bill came up.
Still, Palin was the deciding factor. A new pipeline plan had seemed unlikely when she took over, but she kept the legislature focused on the task. She kept herself focused, too: though priding herself on her well-advertised social conservatism, she was prepared to set it aside when necessary. Rather than pick big fights about social issues, she declined to take up two abortion-restriction measures that she favored, and vetoed a bill banning benefits for same-sex partners of state workers.
Next came the oil tax. An explicit charge that the Petroleum Profits Tax was corrupt would imply, by extension, that the unindicted legislators who had passed it were corrupt, too—and she needed their votes.
Again Palin kept her worst impulses in check. And when she was drawn into the fight, she proved nimble and resourceful. Two things finally prompted her to move ahead: when tax season rolled around, the PPT yielded much less revenue than anticipated; and Democrats needled her incessantly about how much of a reformer she truly was.
Then as now twitchingly alert to any slight, Palin loathed the implication. Democrats, eager to capitalize on public anger, introduced several tougher alternatives that were particularly aggressive—that is, confiscatory—when oil prices rose. Palin focused on capturing more revenue when prices were low. At first, her team tried to win the Republicans over. So Palin did something that would be hard to imagine from her today: she pivoted to the Democrats.
What she signed into law went well beyond her original proposal: ACES imposes a higher base tax rate than its predecessor on oil profits. But the really significant part has been that the tax rate rises much sooner and more steeply as oil prices climb—the part Democrats pushed for.
The tax is assessed monthly, rather than annually, to better capture price spikes, of which there have been many. ACES also makes it harder for companies to claim tax credits for cleaning up spills caused by their own negligence, as some had done under the old regime.
Plunging natural-gas prices have made the project uneconomical. Her oil tax is a different story: though designed to capture more revenue under most scenarios, ACES has raised a lot more money than almost anyone imagined.
But it also shows that the law is working. Flush with cash, Alaska produced large capital budgets that blunted the effects of the recession. But given the corruption that plagued the PPT, a better benchmark might be the tax it supplanted—the one put on the books after the Exxon Valdez spill. W hat happened to Sarah Palin? How did someone who so effectively dealt with the two great issues vexing Alaska fall from grace so quickly? In Alaska, she applied those qualities to fulfilling the promises that got her elected, and in her first year was the most popular governor in the country.
She was serious business. But even before she left the state, she let herself be distracted by the many grievances she harbored against a wide range of enemies. September 3, - Accepts the Republican Party's nomination for vice president at the Republican National Convention.
October 10, - State investigator Stephen Branchflower releases a report that Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor and violated state ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.
November 3, - Alaska's Personnel Board releases a report concluding that Palin did not violate ethics law in relation to her ex-brother-in-law. November 4, - McCain loses the presidential election to Barack Obama. July 3, - Announces that she will be stepping down as governor of Alaska.
July 26, - Steps down as governor of Alaska. Sean Parnell becomes governor. February 6, - Delivers the keynote address at the first national Tea Party convention. June 10, - The state of Alaska releases roughly 24, pages of emails from Palin's governorship that had been requested in under the Freedom of Information Act. October 5, - Announces she is not running for president. President, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. July 27, - The subscription-based Sarah Palin Channel launches online.
March 13, - Palin's husband, Todd, is seriously injured in a snow machine crash in Alaska and is in intensive care. He is hospitalized for two weeks. June 27, - Files a lawsuit against the New York Times alleging that a recent editorial falsely portrayed her as responsible for inciting the shooting of Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords. August 29, - A federal judge dismisses Palin's defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, declaring that he sees no evidence of malicious intent.
In , she played on Wasilla High School's state champion girls' basketball team, picking up the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her intense playing style.
An outdoors enthusiast, Palin grew up as an avid hunter and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, eating moose hamburgers and riding snowmobiles.
She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho in She also became a television sports reporter in Anchorage. Palin eloped with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, on August 29, , and helped run his family's commercial fishing business after their marriage. He took leave from the company when his wife became governor to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
In , Palin decided to enter the political arena. Running on the Republican ticket, she won a seat on the Wasilla City Council by opposing tax hikes and, four years later, she was elected mayor of Wasilla, knocking off three-term incumbent John Stein, to As mayor, Palin cut property taxes and reduced spending. She also raised the city sales tax by half of a percent in order to build a popular sports complex and put more money into public safety.
Palin ran her first statewide campaign in in a bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, but lost by fewer than 2, votes. She resigned a year later in protest over what she perceived to be the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, including Republican Party Chair Randy Ruedrich. In , Palin won the Republican primary for Governor, defeating Murkowski. She went on to win the general election in November by defeating former Democratic Governor Tony Knowles, 49 percent to 41 percent.
With her election, Palin made history as the first female governor, as well as the youngest governor, of Alaska. She was also the state's first governor to be born after Alaska achieved statehood in Palin said the bridge was essential for local prosperity, but once she became governor she turned against it, citing rising costs and other priorities. With an emphasis on ethics and openness in government, Palin's administration focused on education, public safety and transportation.
As a conservative Protestant, she also served as an advocate for pro-life policies; expressed her disapproval of embryonic stem cell research; pushed the belief that creationism, the idea that life was created by a deity, should be taught in public schools alongside the evolution curriculum; and supported Alaska's decision to amend its constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
On the energy front, Palin questioned the validity behind the idea that global warming is man-made. She intensely pursued a pipeline to deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to market. While very popular— The Anchorage Daily News has called her "the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics" and " one of the most popular local politicians in America"—Palin did not serve without controversy. While Palin had the authority to fire Monegan, the former commissioner claimed that Palin let him go because she was angry that he did not fire Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's former brother-in-law.
Palin denied any wrongdoing, saying Monegan was "insubordinate" in disputes over budget issues, and that he engaged in "egregious rogue behavior.
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