Sarah PalinSpeechLebanon, OH 09/09/08TRANSCRIPTION\nSARAH PALIN: As mayor, I shook up the good ol\' boy system—had to kinda take that on. I reminded people that government is not always the answer, in fact, too often government is the problem. So here\'s what we did: we got back to the basics and I put the local government there backon the side of the people.\n\nI eliminated taxes on property; on personal property. I eliminated taxes on those small business inventories; this was hurting small business. We took that tax away. Property taxes were way too high. So every year I cut rates for six years in a row and those reforms worked and our communities soared. We started takin\' off.\n\nSo then, as governor, I brought that same agenda of positive change to the state level. We took on the old politics as usual in Juneau and we broke the monopoly that had controlled our state; that was the lobbyists and the special interests associated with big oil companies. We came to office promising major ethics reform to end the culture of closed doors and self-dealing and today that ethics reform is the law of the state. We cleaned it up!\n\nI thought it was important also, as mayor and governor, to try to lead by example. So what I did,as mayor, I took a voluntary pay cut, which didn\'t really thrill my husband and then, as governor, I cut the personal chef position from the budget, which didn\'t thrill my kids and then I put the state\'s government checkbook on-line for all to see, which didn\'t thrill a lot of the bureaucrats and,as you may have heard, the luxury jet that came with the office: I put it on eBay. \n\nWhat I had done was promise to control spending when I came into office so I didn\'t want to just be walking the walk. We didn\'t want to just talk about it. We wanted to actually do it by request, if possible, and byveto, if necessary is how I would control spending and today our state budget is under control and we do have a surplus and I put the veto pen to nearly half a billion dollars in reckless spending.\n\nJM SP OH 09-09 (JR#64) JH - ClipA LS\n\nTo download a high resolution version of this event, visit: http://issuealliance.box.net/shared/j1aqhfqb6i\n\nTo download the full event, visit: http://issuealliance.box.net/shared/366hv4n41d earmarks, McCain, Palin, reform