As I said before Palin is governor of a state that has less people than DuPage County IL where I live.

Yet despite Alaska's massive tax revenues from oil companies and it's tiny population it has been getting way more federal pork than any state in the nation for decades. On top of that Alaska is the only state that does not collect state sales tax or levy an individual income tax. To finance state operations, Alaska gets 89% of it's operating budget from petroleum revenues.   

The following organization is the offshoot of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control started in 1984, also known as the Grace Commission. Definitely not a Dem friendly group.

Citizens Against Government Waste
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage

Rank    State      Pork   Population  Pork/Capita
<blockquote>2000 1 Alaska $394,514,000   619,500   636.83
2001 1 Alaska $480,297,000   626,932   766.11
2002 1 Alaska $451,334,278   634,892   710.88
2003 1 Alaska $393,346,750   643,786   610.99   
2004 1 Alaska $524,329,000   648,818   808.13
2005 1 Alaska $645,502,000   655,435   984.85
2006 1 Alaska $325,106,000   663,661   489.87
2007          not listed
2008 1 Alaska $379,699,715    683,478  555.54</blockquote>

In her introductory speech Friday as McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin picked up on the Ketchikan bridge that was never built as a symbol of bad federal policy.

“I
championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress,”
Palin said at her first campaign appearance. “In fact, I told Congress
— I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere.
If our state wanted a bridge, I said we’d build it ourselves.”

On Oct. 22, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News asked Palin and the other candidates, “Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?”

Her
response: “Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects
built sooner rather than later. The window is now — while our
congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.”

A
year later, she issued a news release as governor saying Ketchikan
needed better airport access, but a $398 million bridge was not going
to happen.

“Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we
are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project and
it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money
on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island,” Palin said on Sept. 21, 2007.

The money was not sent back to the federal government, but spent on other projects.

That was hardly “Thanks but no thanks.”