Palin's Record on Pork: Less Sizzle than Reported

Wasilla first hired a lobbyist in 2000, according to lobbying disclosure records, turning to Steven Silver, a former staffer to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R), who was already representing the nearby borough, Matanuska-Susitna. (Silver did not respond to a message left at his office.)

"We just piggy backed theirs," said Don Bennett, who served on the Wasilla City Council from 1998 to 2001. And as he saw it, there was little opposition to the idea of getting more federal funds. "If there was a way of getting money, everyone was involved."

Progress was slow but the results soon became clear. In fiscal year 2000 -- which is based on requests made in 1999 -- the city received $1 million for a new bus facility with the borough's bus company, Matanuska-Susitna Community Transit (MASCOT). By fiscal year 2002 the 5,500-person town brought in $1 million for a regional emergency dispatch center, $1.5 million in water and sewer improvements and $2.5 million for a road project, current and former city officials and annual city audit reports show. The 2003 fiscal year also proved fruitful, even if the money did not arrive until after Palin was out of office. There was another $750,000 for the regional dispatch center, $900,000 for a new train or bus stop at the Wasilla airport and $800,000 for airport improvements, according to current and former city officials.

"As the fastest growing area of the state for many years infrastructure was in need of expansion to keep up with the demand for services," John Cramer, former city administrator under Palin, said in an emailed response to questions from ABC.

But several other projects attributed to Wasilla in those years are not listed in the city's financial audits and interviews with city officials and the organizations appear to show that the city was not directly involved.

* The $500,000 earmark in 2001 to Life Quest Community Mental Health Center was separate from the city, said Maryalice Larson, CEO of the center, now called Mat-Su Health Services. She said that the center never lobbied for money but applied for a three-year $500,000 grant to do education and research on co-occurring disorders through the federally funded Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The program, she said, lasted until 2004.

Though the money may have appeared to be a grant because it came through the agency, Tom Schatz, president of Citizen Against Government Waste said, "it would still nonetheless be an earmark because of how they appear in the bill."

* Similarly, the $500,000 earmark in 2001 for a transitional living center at Kids are People Inc. was done without the city. "She [Palin] would have had absolutely nothing to do with it," said Naomi Pigner, the former operations director of the now-defunct social services nonprofit. Instead, she said, the organization reached out to an aide to Sen. Stevens, who had them apply for a grant. She said the money came over a five year period.