What's it costing the taxpayers?

Dear Editor:

You can tell an election is coming up soon. As November draws closer, we get more and more taxpayer-funded mailers telling us all the wonderful things our legislators claim to do. They send out surveys, have townhall conference calls, and even invite you to breakfast or dessert, all on the taxpayer dime.

Most candidates have to raise money or use their own money to get their message out. But if you are a Harrisburg insider, you can spend thousands of our dollars, right before Election Day, to promote yourself for re-election.

If our legislators were serious about saving money, they would stop campaigning on the taxpayer dime and pass legislation to ban the practice for good.

At a time when Harrisburg is promoting bare bones budgets and spending cuts across the board, what is all this propaganda costing the taxpayers of our state?

Gene Moerder

Tamaqua