The Star has an interesting sidebar summarizing the Democrats 5-week, self-imposed exile in Urbana, Illinois. Here's what it shows by the numbers:
$3,150 The amount of fines most Democratic lawmakers will be assessed for the walkout
40 The number of Democratic members in the House
39 The number of Democrats who participated in the walkout (Rep. Stemler was the lone holdout)
35 The number of days the walkout lasted
$85,000 Estimated cost of the Democrats' hotel bill in Urbana, Illinois' Comfort Inn Suites
House Speaker Brian Bosma maintains the fines will be collected from the House Democratic caucus members by deducting the fines from their per diem pay going forward. I suspect the Indiana Democratic Party, which raised money from the special interest groups that stood to benefit from the walkout, is covering the cost for them. The question remains whether Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller or Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry will uphold the laws of the state that prohibit lawmakers from having their out-of-state travel paid by lobbyists and from soliciting campaign contributions while the legislature is in session. The Democrats clearly used their state party organization to break both of those laws, violations of which is a Class D felony. Taxpayers should further press governmental entities and public education institutions employing Democratic lawmakers to explain why the double dippers were not fired from their government jobs for failing to show up for work for more than a month without an excused absence for conducting their business with the House of Representatives.
5 comments:
Gary, they don't care about wasting money. It does no good to even point it out.
Well, instead of addressing the state's core issues (unemployment, education, infrastructure, etc.), the GOP wastes its time over irrelevant topics (gay marriage, eviscerating Planned Parenthood, etc.) popular with its base.
I'd leave town, too.
Ellen, you have a point about the R's wasting time. Most people don't care about gay marriage.
However, that's no excuse to leave town.
The reality is that the democrats could care less about my employment or unemployment because I do not belong to a huge voting block that blindly votes for them. The democrats care about getting more and more of what I earn each year, leaving me with less and less.
My retirement is just as important as a public employee's. And if I can pay for my own out of what I earn, then so can they.
I still maintain that the ones who abdicated their duty are guilty of ghost employment. They got paid for 10 weeks worth of attendance to the House proceedings and were gone for half of that.
If that's not ghost employment, I don't know what it. I'm not buying any argument that sitting in a hotel room 'working on amendments' constitutes performance of their regular duties.
Ellen,
So the Repuboicans are accused of moving too fast on certain issues then on others they're accused of "wasting time." Which isit?
I'm pretty confident there is a large segment of the population that is shocked the state contracts with Planned Parenthood and wants it stopped. This is all about a private company wanting to keep the profit train going at public expense.
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