Confirmed: Despite Claim, Palin's Pay As Mayor Of Wasilla Went Up
By Greg Sargent - September 19, 2008, 3:06PM
I've just obtained some records from the city of Wasilla that confirm that Sarah Palin's pay as mayor went up, despite her claim that she took a pay cut.
One thing Palin has frequently claimed as proof of her reform credentials is that she "took a pay cut" as Wasilla mayor. As I reported here yesterday, however, local Alaska press clippings seemed to show that this is only true in a very narrow sense.
The clippings indicate that while she did pass a pay-cut ordinance upon taking office, her pay actually went up during her overall tenure.
Now we have records from the city of Wasilla that confirm this. Here is the trajectory of her pay, according to the records:
Upon taking office on 10/14/1996: $64.200
01/01/1997: Pay was cut from $64,200 to $61,200
06/01/1998: Pay rose from $61,200 to $68,000
07/01/1999: Pay cut again from $68,000 to $66,000
10/01/1999: Pay rose from $66,000 to $68,000
From late 1999 until the end of her mayoralty in 2002, records show, her pay stayed at $68,000 -- higher than the $64,200 it was when she started out, and significantly higher than the $61,200 she initially cut it to.
The records don't explain the mechanisms by which the pay shifts happened. As best as we can determine, the cuts were engineered by Palin herself through some sort of executive mechanism, and the raises were City Council-mandated hikes.
What's the upshot? Well, Palin's claim that she "took a pay cut" as mayor is true in a narrow sense. She came in and took a pay cut that she engineered herself.
But in a broader sense, the claim is an oversimplification that borders on misleading. The bottom line is that whatever her intentions, over the course of her mayoralty Palin's pay went up thousands of dollars and stayed higher for years, money which she presumably kept. (If any proof emerges that she donated it to charity or channeled it back into city coffers in some other way, we'll happily update.)
This isn't another Bridge to Nowhere. But it does fit a pattern here, where Palin burnishes her reform credentials by describing intentions as realities or otherwise boiling down the record into easily-digestible sound-bites that at best are half-truths, as this latest one has now proven to be.
The McCain campaign has declined to comment on the pay hikes.
We'll bring you the records themselves soon.
Late Update: The documentation is here. It's what the city of Wasilla's Human Resources Generalist will send to anyone who asks for documentation of Palin's pay.
I've just obtained some records from the city of Wasilla that confirm that Sarah Palin's pay as mayor went up, despite her claim that she took a pay cut.
One thing Palin has frequently claimed as proof of her reform credentials is that she "took a pay cut" as Wasilla mayor. As I reported here yesterday, however, local Alaska press clippings seemed to show that this is only true in a very narrow sense.
The clippings indicate that while she did pass a pay-cut ordinance upon taking office, her pay actually went up during her overall tenure.
Now we have records from the city of Wasilla that confirm this. Here is the trajectory of her pay, according to the records:
Upon taking office on 10/14/1996: $64.200
01/01/1997: Pay was cut from $64,200 to $61,200
06/01/1998: Pay rose from $61,200 to $68,000
07/01/1999: Pay cut again from $68,000 to $66,000
10/01/1999: Pay rose from $66,000 to $68,000
From late 1999 until the end of her mayoralty in 2002, records show, her pay stayed at $68,000 -- higher than the $64,200 it was when she started out, and significantly higher than the $61,200 she initially cut it to.
The records don't explain the mechanisms by which the pay shifts happened. As best as we can determine, the cuts were engineered by Palin herself through some sort of executive mechanism, and the raises were City Council-mandated hikes.
What's the upshot? Well, Palin's claim that she "took a pay cut" as mayor is true in a narrow sense. She came in and took a pay cut that she engineered herself.
But in a broader sense, the claim is an oversimplification that borders on misleading. The bottom line is that whatever her intentions, over the course of her mayoralty Palin's pay went up thousands of dollars and stayed higher for years, money which she presumably kept. (If any proof emerges that she donated it to charity or channeled it back into city coffers in some other way, we'll happily update.)
This isn't another Bridge to Nowhere. But it does fit a pattern here, where Palin burnishes her reform credentials by describing intentions as realities or otherwise boiling down the record into easily-digestible sound-bites that at best are half-truths, as this latest one has now proven to be.
The McCain campaign has declined to comment on the pay hikes.
We'll bring you the records themselves soon.
Late Update: The documentation is here. It's what the city of Wasilla's Human Resources Generalist will send to anyone who asks for documentation of Palin's pay.
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