Sure, You Can See Palin Email ... for $15M

Sarah Palin ran on a platform of transparent government, but it seems that Alaskan transparency has a price: $15 million. That’s how much the governor’s office wants from news organizations for copies of official email, MSNBC reports. Even if organizations are willing to pay up, the email will be censored, and won’t come until well after Election Day.

Why $15 million? The office says a computer programmer needs13 hours to assemble the emails for each employee, which, at $73.87 an hour, equals $960.31. Multiply by the 16,000 full-time state employees, and you get $15,364,960. Plus 10 cents per photocopy. State law allows such fees to be waived for journalists, but Palin’s only done so when it’s a few dollars. (More Election 2008 stories.)