Please understand, I have nothing against Alaska. I like Alaska, have been there several times. What I cannot begin to understand is why there is ANY Federal money heading to Alaska for ANY reason. Last year, $2.1B was allocated and spent by the state of Alaska for Federally supported programs. Just this week, another $26M in earmarks were included in the Omnibus spending bill before the US Senate. Sen. McCain tweeted about just one of the earmarks, but that just scratched the surface. He whined about $2M for a ferry landing at Port Lion, AK. I did some checking. Virtually all of the earmarks are geared towards the native Alaskan groups in Alaska. Which might suggest a racial bias in Alaska. The state won't fund these projects, so the Federal government has to.
Here are some facts. The state of Alaska has in their 'slush' fund $36B collecting interest. The state of Alaska just announced a dividend to every Alaska citizen of $1,281.00 for an individual, $5,405.00 for a family of five for 2010, a total of approximately $819M. That is for ONE YEAR. Alaskans pay virtually no sales tax.
Now, explain to me why the $26M could not be taken from the slush fund or deducted from the $819M dividend.
I can understand if a state does not have the financial resources to take care of their own people and infrastructure that the Federal government steps in and helps out, but clearly the state of Alaska can afford to take care of their own.
Am I missing something?
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