Steve Bernholz: Abusing taxpayer money

Regarding the July 27 Under the Dome article “Lawmakers to seek pay for ALEC visit”: Most good residents, whether conservative, moderate or liberal, would agree that no member of our state legislature ought to use state funds to advance personal political views. Yes, they may be paid for their role in lawmaking, and how they vote on any piece of legislation is entirely up to them and will almost always be evaluated by the voting public.

Private contributions of any amount to their campaigns are proper (see Citizens United case) and may be used to gain more support and votes. Imagine how taxpayers would feel if their tax money were used to make a contribution to a particular campaign to benefit an incumbent or the opposing candidate.

When a legislator authorizes and thus permits public money to be used to reimburse their expenses for travel and registration at a West Coast “conference” promoting their personal political agenda, they have violated the spirit and letter of the law. Never mind that the meeting was sponsored by an extremist right-wing organization (ALEC), whose political agenda conforms with the legislator’s political beliefs.

Reimbursed expenses for attending a leftist meeting would be equally outrageous!

This story was originally published July 29, 2015 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Steve Bernholz: Abusing taxpayer money."