Sarah Palin may not be the only one worried about the Russians - at least according to a recent study which shows the sparsely populated state of Alaska to be a proverbial hotbed for federal homeland security expenditures.
The non-profit investigative journalism group, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), recently reported that Alaska is one of the greatest per-capita beneficiaries of federal funding of any state. And to much surprise, millions in federal funds have flowed into Alaska's small towns, including Sarah Palin's tiny hometown of Wasilla, in the form of homeland security grants.
According to the report, Wasilla, with a population of 7,028, and the borough that surrounds it, have received over $4 million in homeland security grants to protect against emergencies, terrorists, and those pesky Russians. The purchases seem unnecessary and unreasonable: a surveillance system for its water wells, a $244,500 150-foot tall communications tower, a half-million dollar mobile command vehicle with off-road capabilities, a conference room and an incinerator toilet, because clearly, there's no room to dump waste in Alaska.
Speaking of waste, Wasilla seems to be showering itself with federal dollars like Sarah Palin in Neiman Marcus. Since 2006, the now infamous tiny town has secured nearly $5 million in federal earmarks for public safety purposes outside of Homeland Security Department grants. That amounts to about $714 per resident, or, in Palin terms, a pair of shoes. Not bad for a town with an annual operating budget of $13.7 million.
It seems John McCain, in his quest for eliminating pork, erred in going after Alaskan bears instead the big spending bear hunters in Wasilla. Perhaps someone should study their DNA instead and find out what makes them so fearful and in need of emergency preparedness just south of the Arctic.
Of course, not everyone in Wasilla welcomes the federal handouts. Steve Stoll, a local land surveyor who ran for mayor of Wasilla in 2005 argues that the city shouldn't grab at every dollar in homeland security assistance just because it can.
"So many times I've heard the expression, 'If we don't take it, someone else will,'" Stoll, who lost the election, said in an interview with CIR. "I just don't subscribe to that at all. I think it's a totally wrong way to run government."
Wasilla is a nice example of the type of government waste directed at the state of Alaska, but far from the only one seeking your taxpayer dollars. The city of Whittier, population 175 - that's no typo - and located 60 miles southeast of Anchorage spent $28,400 in federal grants to purchase two SABRE 3000 Anthrax detectors, $24,000 on an "incident command vehicle" and $15,000 for two Kawasaki 4x4 ATVs with winches, state records show.
In the history of Alaska, not a single case of Anthrax has ever been reported, according to the state's Department of Health and Social Services.
Similarly, the 6,000-person Alaska port city of Bethel spent $6,287 to buy a "surveillance shotgun listening device," $44,000 on seven ATVs and $22,000 for video surveillance of its water treatment plant. Watching water boil at home must have been getting dull.
And then there was the 2,500-person fishing village of Dillingham in southwestern Alaska, which spent $202,000 on a wireless surveillance system that blanketed its downtown and port areas with 80 cameras. Sadly, the cameras cannot monitor Alaska's border air space for Russian spies.
The list of government waste goes on and on, and between 2002 and 2006, CIR reports that Alaska received "at least $66.6 million from the most common preparedness grants distributed by the Department of Homeland Security putting the state behind only three others in per-capita spending: Vice President Dick Cheney's home state of Wyoming, Vermont and North Dakota. The amount is about $100 per Alaskan, more than half the per-capita figure for the state of New York and $70 more than for each California resident."
Congress added another $80 million to that pile after 9/11 to help the state establish interoperable communications between local, state and federal officials The Alaska Land Mobile Radio system is now considered one of the most advanced in the country, thanks to former Senator Stevens. And that's not all!
"What began as a $100 million port overhaul in Anchorage before 9/11 has morphed into a $700 million expansion project presided over by a former governor, Bill Sheffield, who's well connected to Young and Stevens. Port officials say that more than half of the project's costs will be covered by federal funds..." How nice for them.
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