Legal Commentary

To get a sense of just how de-linked Sarah Palin's recent rhetoric is from her record, you really have to read this CBS story about Palin's plan to build a sports complex using a sales tax increase back when she was Mayor of the booming townopolis of Wasilla, AK.

According to the article, Mayor Palin advocated and secured via referendum a 25 percent increase over the existing sales tax. Now, I know what you're thinking: tax increase = heresy for Republican.

Right.

But you see, this project was different from your average government program. Different how, you ask? Well, because Mayor Palin thought it was a good idea. Mayor Palin explained in an email to city council department heads that she had "waited patiently -- for over four years now [Editor's note: !!] -- for either the private sector" or some other "public entity" (federal earmark, anyone?) to build a sports complex. You see, the private sector just hadn't done its job. Apparently it wasn't sufficiently profitable to build said complex. Indeed, from the CBS story we learn this:

One Wasilla resident who voted for the complex is Mike Edwards. He says he spends about an hour a day at the facility watching his son play. He says he?s glad government stepped in to build the new ice because privately run rinks are much more expensive, costing teams as much as $300 an hour to practice compared to $185 at the public rink.

Just for the record, the conservative economic position is supposed to be that one shouldn't raise tax revenues to pay for things that the private sector won't provide. Why? Because if the private sector won't pay for a service, it's because private business firms don't think they can make a normal profit producing said service. And if the businesses community doesn't think that, it's because folks in that community think it will cost more to provide the service than individual people are actually willing to pay for it. Seems like Mr. Edwards has confirmed that intuition among businesses.

Now, lest you get all upset over hypocrisy and that sort of thing, do note that Mayor Palin argued that public provision of the sports complex was justified because it would prevent juvenile delinquency and drug use, activities that involve negative externalities.

Well, it's fascinating to find that the Future of the Republican Party, as embodied by former-Mayor and now-Governor Sarah Palin, is so interested in government-funded social programs. I guess I worry a bit about the cost-benefit analysis of this particular program, since a price of 60% the market rate would suggest that the externalities associated with not playing hockey, soccer or other such subsidized activities must be awfully costly.

In any case, all you big-government liberals out there can rest assured that the Original Mavericks "get it" -- they're on board for taxpayer-funded provision of things that private businesses won't provide, at way below the price those businesses would charge, and especially if some other "public entity" will pay for it. Indeed, maybe this is a place where would-be Second Dude Todd Palin's pals in the Alaska Independence Party's can cash in on their UN love for some international earmarks.

One last note for the property law experts among us: according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Mayor Palin was too busy negotiating with the Russians over Bering Sea rights* to secure an actual title to the land on which sits the Socially Necessary Sports Complex:

the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.

Thankfully, Sarah Palin is not a Democrat, so we won't have to hear about how this tale of Big government Love proves she is out to take all your money.

*Ok, I made up the Bering Sea thing. But that may be the next argument