$85,000 and counting

Those sales tax holiday flyers I wrote about yesterday have totaled $85,000 of taxpayer money thus far according to AC Kleinheider.

What I have uploaded here is a spreadsheet of legislative expenditures on the mailers to date. It is not, I am told, officially comprehensive because invoices sometimes straggle through the system piecemeal. However, from what is available thus far, these sales tax mailers would seem to be not only publicaly funded but a publicaly funded Democratic Caucus initiative.

There are some 60 Democrat legislators. If each participated at the same rate as the 15 who already have this could be a grand total of about $391,000. That's a LOT of taxpayer cash that could be used for what they say is their first priority: education.

I am completely unconvinced that the usual media sources, school systems and retailers haven't done a good job at notifying the public of this tax holiday and state legislators needed to take this task on themselves--at our expense. But, legislators, looking toward reelection, needed to ensure their faces and this holiday were linked and presented to each voter. Without my permission I've made a 'donation' to each of their campaigns.