Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has agreed to pay her state back for business trips on which she took her kids. But she still says she did nothing wrong. You betcha!

Palin will write a check for about $6,800 to cover the cost of nine trips in 2007 and 2008, including airfare and one meal when daughter Bristol accompanied her to New York City for a women’s leadership conference. The deal’s meant to pacify a state ethics investigation.

Also this week, Palin turned in her Chevy Suburban after finding out she would owe income taxes on it if she used it for personal use. Last week, she also found out that she owed back taxes on thousands of dollars paid in state meal allowances used while she was staying at home in Wasilla, not in the governor’s official residence near Anchorage.

Palin’s attorney says the governor is happily complying with ethics standards that don’t even exist. There’s actually no law saying kids can’t travel with their state-official parents. Now the state is going to create new regulations for future trips paid for with Alaska taxpayer money.

Palin’s staff went even further, saying this week that Palin is living more frugally than her two immediate predecessors, Govs. Frank Murkowski and Tony Knowles. Even so, isn’t it sort of a "no-duh" question of whether taxpayer money should fund a trip to see "Beauty and the Beast?"