World News Korner

Alaska most corrupt state by population. Gee, no kidding.

Courtesy of KTOO:

Alaska was No. 1 for corruption-related convictions of federal, state and local public employees and elected officials, averaged over the state’s population. When averaged over the number of public employees per state, Alaska ranked seventh. Convictions were counted from 1976 to 2008, based on data from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The rankings were just one item the researchers fed into their statistical analyses testing for connections between corruption and state spending.

Four theories were tested:

1. The more corruption there is, the bigger the budget;
2. Corruption skews spending toward capital spending, construction and highways;
3. Corruption skews spending toward salaries, wages and debt financing;
4. and Corruption skews state spending away from social sectors, such as education, welfare and health.

Their analyses backed all four theories. The researchers also presented a statistical model that suggests if Alaska had merely “average” corruption, the state could save more than $900 million a year.

To be fair between 2006 and 2008 we were convicting politicians right and left. (Well Right anyway.) However just because the FBI is not throwing them in jail at the same pace certainly does not mean that the corruption is any less than it was before.

It just means our politicians have become better at hiding their criminal activities.

Of course in some cases the politicians simply quit their jobs half way through to avoid prosecution, which may skew the number of convictions as well.

The rest in the top five of corrupt states were

2) Mississippi
3) Louisiana
4) North Dakota
5) South Dakota

You know why can't Alaska be number one is something good for a change, instead of number one in things like corruption, rape, and alcoholism?

Source