Palin's veto ax 10% of state spending on hometown projects.

TENSION: Some legislators say cuts were unnecessary and went too deep.

Published: May 24th, 2008 12:26 AM

Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday axed about 10 percent of the spending that state legislators approved for hometown projects.

This is the second year in a row Palin vetoed projects dear to legislators. She said lawmakers stuffed the $2.7 billion state capital budget too full.

Sampling of projects in and out of budget

On Friday, Gov. Palin signed an $11 billion operating budget and a $2.7 billion capital budget for fiscal year 2009, which starts July 1. She vetoed $2.6 million from the operating budget but rejected $265 million in projects from the capital budget -- about 10 percent.

More on the story.

And the irony was that one of the 360 programs that Palin had cut or vetoed was Singer Dolly Parton National Imagination Library in Anchorage -- $90,000. Former OJJDP employee and whistleblower Scott B. Peterson sent me this email yesterday about Palin and a bill that she vetoed this year. He wrote:

Governor Sarah Palin Vetoed a Bill this year that would of given Children from birth to age 5 just one book a month in what is now the largest private reading program in the nation and endorsed and supported by everyone from the National PTA to the Teachers Unions.

It is the Dolly Parton National Imagaination Library now in more than 500 local communities in more than 30 states.

Back in May, the highly conservative Palin vetoed a bill passed by the Alaskan state legislature allotting $90,000 in state funding to support a chapter of Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program in the city of Anchorage.
http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/

This is accurate and easy to verify and she should answer how and WHY she would ever do such a thing for these children and parents in remote places who do not have a Barnes and Noble or Waldenbooks !

Shame on you Governor Palin !

Scott Peterson
Somerville, MA, USA