ABOUT THOSE TAX RETURNS…. Remember, she’s on the ticket because she’s a “reformer.”
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows.
The 41 gifts Palin accepted during her 20 months as governor include honorific tributes, expensive artwork and free travel for a family member. They also include more than $2,500 in personal items from Calista, a large Alaska native corporation with a variety of pending state regulatory and budgetary issues, and a gold-nugget pin valued at $1,200 from the city of Nome, which lobbies on municipal, local and capital budget matters, documents show.
It prompted Mark Kleiman to ask a good question: “When are we going to see Sarah Palin’s tax returns?”
Obama and Biden have released their tax returns, and McCain kinda sorta did the same. So, when will Palin — who recently emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability in government — follow suit?
