After Palin's Tenure, AK's Credit Rating Raised to Aaa

As Nicole reported last night, S&P has downgraded the nation's credit rating from AAA to AA+ for the first time in history. While the left desperately tries to convince the country that this is because Obama & Co. haven't taxed us enough, S&P made clear why they made the decision they made:

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.

More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.

While the country suffers under the current leadership, and the economy continues it's downward spiral; it should be noted that quite the opposite happened in Alaska after a Palin administration. In November of 2010, Moody's, another one of the three big rating agencies raised Alaska's rating from Aa1 to Aaa:

Alaska had its bond rating raised to the highest investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service after the oil-rich state amassed financial reserves of $14 billion.

Moody’s raised Alaska one level to Aaa from Aa1 before a $200 million bond sale by the state, which currently has about $475 million of general-obligation debt outstanding. Alaska joins 14 other states, including Texas and Maryland that have a top rating from Moody’s.

“We believe the magnitude of reserves, along with conservative financial management, will lead to enduring fiscal strength under all plausible scenarios over the next five to 10 years,” Moody’s said in a news release today.

While it's true that this upgrade happened during a Parnell administration, confidence in Alaska from this major credit agency didn't happen overnight.

Governor Palin served Alaska during a time when oil prices were high, but she put into place measures that allowed the states financial reserves to grow, instead of being grossly mismanaged by undisciplined bureaucrats. She also reduced Alaska's liabilities by 34.6%, as was addressed yesterday. Her forward focused fiscal prudence, in addition to the fact that she addressed Alaska's financial liabilities, likely gave Moody's the needed assurance of the state's fiscal seriousness to increase Alaska's credit rating.Could we expect the current federal leadership to address liabilities to show rating agencies that America is serious about our fiscal health? Is there any question that the United States government would squander large revenues under the current leadership?

Just imagine if this country opened up energy production, while simultaneously taking bold steps, - such as Governor Palin did in Alaska - to get it's fiscal house in order. As you can see, it produces exactly the opposite outcome of what we are currently facing today. In the words of Governor Palin, "2012 can't come soon enough."

Check out this short clip from the CATO Institute on what it means to have our nation's credit rating downgraded, in simple terms:

Debating Governor Palin's Fiscal Record

An odd thing happened to me on Wednesday... A left-winger tried to debate me on Governor Palin's actual record. Considering this is not the normal sort of behavior I am accustomed to as a Palin supporter (usually things that don't exist are the topic of my debates with the left) it shocked me.

The person who attempted to play gotcha with Governor Palin's record, is an obscure individual on Twitter who goes by the name "Uncle Fetus." At this point, you may be asking yourself why I would bother posting on a debate with an anonymous lefty who only has 15 followers... The reason for that is because he was civil, he wanted to argue substance, and if someone else tries to use his false argument, C4P readers will be equipped to answer them.

He shifted an earlier debate about whether or not Governor Palin is running for president in 2012, to the governor's fiscal record in Alaska. He sent me the following two tweets:

Here

Under Palin, AK Total State Debt increased from $8.3 billion in FY2005-06 to $9.3 billion in FY 2009-10. http://www.revenue.state.ak.us/treasury/programs/programs/other/debt/index.aspx

And here

For FY2005-06, Total State Supported debt was $972.9million, in FY2009-10 it rose to $1.349billion. http://www.revenue.state.ak.us/treasury/programs/programs/other/debt/index.aspx

Now, I am very familiar with Governor Palin's record, but I'm also the sort of person who you put a bunch on numbers in front of, and my eyes glaze over. Math was never my best subject. So, in order to answer Uncle Fetus' claims thoroughly, I thought I would message Whitney, who is more familiar with Governor Palin's record than roughly 99.9% of the planet. She's also pretty good with numbers. Whitney sent me the following in response (emphasis):

First off, he's looking at the wrong set of data for Murkowski's final year and Palin's final year. He's a year off. Murkowski's final FY is actually FY2006-2007 with his budget passed in the summer of 2006. In addition to a budget, some of the other policies that might affect the debt would be in place from the Murkowski administration to some degree for that year's debt info. This information is found here in the following year's report: http://www.dor.alaska.gov/treasury/programs/documentviewer/viewer.aspx?428f where it says "as of June 30, 2007, the ____debt is". While Governor Palin was in office then, it was Murkowski's budgeting term that ended in June 2007. With this, the debt then was $9.2 billion with state supported at $1.085+ billion. Governor Palin's final year was the FY20092010 budget passed in the summer of 2009. These numbers show a state debt of $9.0 billion and a state supported debt of $1.256 billion in the report from the following year: http://www.dor.alaska.gov/treasury/programs/documentviewer/viewer.aspx?811f. The overall debt was reduced by $200 million.

Fiscal year things are confusing, then there is a delay between the Fiscal Year and the reporting with this stuff. I had to look at it a few times to make sure I understood right. There may be some influence from Palin's policies (though not budget) in Murkowski's final year, and the same kind of thing for Palin/Parnell. However, the debt numbers are from each person's final fiscal year in office.

Yes, the state supported debt went up from the Murkowski to Palin administration, but it seems that they include pensions, which are always a mess. Governor Palin reformed pensions and used the surplus to help pay it down. Gov. Palin' s second to last year (the number's he is showing), the state supported debt is $1.349 billion--higher than in her final year. She reduced it as her tenure went on.

Regarding the surplus vs. debt thing, I think they can have a revenue surplus, but the aspect of debt also deals with pensions and bonds. It would be outside of an operating or capital budget. Also, this info seems to include municipal debt, which would be at the local level, largely outside of the influence of a governor.

It was a nice try by Uncle Fetus, but he failed to make a valid point at then end of the day. Sarah Palin was a responsible governor, a proven reformer, and she has spoken many times about respecting taxpayer dollars considering where they come from.

This might also be a good time to point out that the left's most famous politician, Barack Obama, has "plunged" this nation into frightening debt. So much so, that congress is in the middle of debating whether or not to raise the $14.3 trillion debt-ceiling at this time. While it's great that some on the the left want to argue substance, it may be wise for them to steer clear of fiscal policy debates.


(All credit to Whitney Pitcher)

Ralph Samuels was one of VECO's "Dirty Dozen"

Continuing to look into Ralph Samuels record, the former Alaska legislator who is taking on Sean Parnell in the Alaska gubernatorial primary, I found something ugly. It turns out Ralph, who I wrote about a few days ago and suspect is a corrupt 'good ol boy,' is listed as one of "Veco's Dirty Dozen."

Back in May of 2007, a former legislator from Anchorage and government watchdog by the name of Ray Metcalfe wrote:

"Even though the FBI's indictments of dirty politicians and those who bribe them has begun, (just the tip of the iceberg) House Majority Leader Ralph Samuels, Senate President Lyda Green, and about 20 other members of our Legislature who owe their elections to VECO are still stumping for the oilfield services company that is at the center of the ongoing FBI investigation.

Why would any legislator trust those who say the governor's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act is bad for Alaska, when they know those detractors are directly or indirectly associated with those who bribed our legislators.

They are pushing an ethics bill that does nothing, and - for those who haven't already figured it out - our state treasury is now funded by a tax scheme that brings in about half of what it should. It's the same tax scheme referenced in the indictments that VECO bribed our legislators to pass.

If you read the rest of that piece you'll realize why ACES exists today and also why I call the Palin-haters on the right, "Oil RINO's."

Mr. Metcalfe wrote another piece to follow up in October of that year called "Veco's Dirty Dozen." He states:

"The following twelve Alaska legislators all have four things in common:

1. Every one of them has taken more than $10,000 from Veco.

2. When Veco owner Bill Allen asked to be relieved of his requirement to register as a lobbyist, they crafted and passed legislation ending Bill Allen's requirement to register.

3. When presented with hundreds of pages of evidence of Veco's bribery, each of them refused to respond.

4. When asked to admit or deny under oath whether or not had taken advantage of the illegal polling, services that Veco's Vice President Rick Smith admitted having provided to over 100 of their favored candidates, every one of the still seated legislators below refused comment."

1. Mike Chenault, $32,000

2. Ralph Samuels, $10,250

3. Mike Hawker, $21,350

4. Lesil McGuire, $17,550

5. Lyda Green, $18,000

6. Kevin Meyer, $23,350

7. John Cowdery, $45,200

8. Con Bunde, $18,650

9. John Coghill Jr, $10,480

10. Richard Foster, $16,750

11. Fred Dyson, $21,700

12. Gary Stevens, $14,275

He then goes on to warn Alaskans "Watch closely as they go to bat for everything Veco fought for --- and remember them next election. "

There turned out not to be another election for Ralph to represent Alaska's 29th district. He started to run for re-election but withdrew his candidacy during the primary that year. I wonder why? Ralph appeared to go to bat for those he 'owed his election to' aside from his lone vote against AGIA. Ralph Samuels also opposed ACES and is a sort of mini-champ for those corrupt influences in Alaska. I'm still digging through his voting record and beyond the big headline votes, I'm curious how much VECO and other 'bed partners' influenced Ralph's decisions.

Speaking of misguided Alaskan's, I ran into Valerie Henning again while conducting my research. She said "Ralph Samuels for Governor!"

These people are shameless.