Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin yesterday pledged to be an advocate for families with special needs children -- including full funding for a so-far-unkept federal pledge to underwrite a share of special education funding under the Individuals with Educational Disabilities Act.

At the same time, Ms. Palin's first-ever policy speech, delivered at a 9 a.m. appearance at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott, left confusion in its wake. After she appeared to suggest that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama wants to tax trusts established by the families of special needs individuals, the Obama camp said no such tax is proposed, and trust attorneys said tax laws governing trusts are so established that any kind of alteration in their status would be implausible.

The McCain-Palin campaign could not provide explanations for her remarks yesterday, either among press aides who accompanied the candidate on her swing here or at national and regional headquarters.

In her speech, the vice-presidential candidate, who is herself the mother a 6-month-old with Down syndrome, spoke of the need for long-term care.

"A common practice among these families is to establish financial trusts. These are known as special needs trusts, covering years of medical and other costs, and for parents they bring valuable comfort," she said. "Understandably then, many families with special needs children or dependent adults are concerned that our opponent in this election plans to raise taxes on precisely those kinds of financial arrangements."

That assertion was met with a blunt denial from the Obama camp.

The taxation remark was noticed by few, and Ms. Palin framed her assertion in the McCain campaign's position that Mr. Obama is, in general, an advocate of higher taxes. He has proposed adjusting the tax rate to increase income taxes on families making more than $250,000 annually.

"Our opponent has an ideological commitment to higher taxes. And though he makes adjustments on his tax plan pronouncements seemingly by the day, his commitment to increase taxes remains the same," she said.

Tax and estate attorneys, though, said they were unable to determine precisely what Ms. Palin meant by a suggestion that Mr. Obama wants to increase taxes on special needs trusts.

"I don't think there's any validity" to the assertion, said Eric Pfeil, a trust and estate specialist with the Pittsburgh firm of Cohen Grigsby. Mr. Pfeil said he has set up such special needs trusts, "and there's no special tax treatment that a special needs trust gets." He said he was unaware of any proposal afoot to change their status.

After $10,700 in earnings, such trusts are taxed at a compressed rate of 35 percent. But if those earnings are distributed to a beneficiary, the earnings are taxed as personal income at the prevailing rate.

Most such trusts -- called either Medicaid trusts or special needs trusts -- are constructed to provide payments to cover costs and expenses for disabled persons beyond what they might receive under federal programs.

"I think what she said was inartful," said Mr. Pfeil. "... Even if you wanted to mess with them in the Medicaid rules, there's no way you could levy a tax to penalize Medicaid or special needs trusts. You would have to redefine what kind of distributions could be made from a Medicaid trust or a special needs trust."

Other portions of the Palin speech included a promise for broadened federal funding for special needs programs as well as a proposal to make any federal subsidies for special needs students portable, so they could carry them if they transferred from a public to a private or religious school.

The pledge to fully fund IDEA -- the program for disabled students -- is similar to a pledge by Mr. Obama. The law, passed decades ago, requires school districts to meet the individual needs of disabled students, but the federal government has never followed through on its commitment to pay 40 percent of the costs of education for those children. Currently, the federal government is $16 billion behind on its share to the states.

"Portions of IDEA funding have actually decreased since 2005," she said. "This is a matter of reprioritizing."

She alluded to $18 billion in special earmarks written into the federal budget for pet projects and suggested that eliminating them would more than fully fund the federal government's share of special education. "You're going to see reform and re-focus," she said.

Ms. Palin gave the speech before an invitation-only audience of approximately 350 -- many of them parents and families with special needs children as well as others active in the anti-abortion movement.

Some were there as professionals who work in the field, one that has received scant attention in the course of the 2008 campaign.

Kathi Johnson, of Bethel Park, who works with Southwestern Human Services and Early Intervention Specialists -- agencies that deal with special needs children -- said she was pleased with Ms. Palin's reference to families' efforts to provide long-term care for special needs children.

Ms. Palin made reference to the struggles of families with special needs children, particularly the difficulty in planning for them in adulthood, after their parents are gone.

Also in the audience was Andrea Tuccillo, a Marshall woman with an adult special needs son. She was pleased with the pledge for full funding of IDEA and said she was intrigued by the proposal to make special education funds portable.

She said she was less pleased that Ms. Palin made no reference to waiver funding for special needs adults who require post-high school training, education, supports and services after age 21. Such funding comes through the federal Medicaid program, but sufficient funds are lacking for all applicants. "There is a tremendous waiting list," Ms. Tuccillo said.

After mingling with attendees for 15 minutes, Ms Palin decamped from Pittsburgh. Her campaign itinerary listed her destination as Springfield, Mo., where she was to attend a rally, then on to Branson National Airport and then St. Louis.

The St. Louis stop listed her attendance at a hockey game, but did not mention a key stop -- a deposition to be given in an ongoing state Personnel Board investigation of allegations that she abused her power by dismissing her public safety commissioner, who claims that her action followed his refusal to fire Ms. Palin's former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a messy divorce from her sister.

A legislative investigation already found that Ms. Palin had a right to fire Commissioner Walter Monegan, but violated state ethics laws by trying to get her former family member kicked off the force.

Traveling press aides referred inquiries to the McCain press office in Washington, which did not immediately respond to questions.