by Frank Napolitano
I was at an event last week at the DuPage County Fairgrounds. The office of the State’s Attorney was there giving away little plastic drinking cups and Frisbees. These items were of course paid for by us, the tax payers. Perhaps, there is a legitimate reason to give these things away, community involvement, raising awareness, etc. I get all of that, but why do they need to put the State’s Attorney’s name on the items? It looks an awful lot like promotional items that a campaign should be paying for, but the campaign is not paying for it, we are.
This is one example of something that members of both parties do, and they do it excessively without regard for who’s money it is that is paying for these items, ours. Why did our tax dollars pay for Rod Blagojevich’s name to be all over the I-Pass lanes on the toll way? Why did the tax payers of Chicago need to put Daley’s name and now I assume Rahm’s name up at the airport saying, Welcome to Chicago? Why do our tax dollars need to be used to pay for giveaways for Lisa Madigan’s office, or Jesse White’s office?
Even the treasurer’s do it when they mail you your tax bill whether it is Cook County’s Maria Pappas, or Illinois’s Dan Rutherford, however notice the US Treasurer doesn’t put his name on envelopes, perhaps because he is not an elected official.
If it is wrong for the Democrats, it is wrong for the Republicans. Someone needs to take a stand, someone needs to say, if you want to give away something from the office of the State’s Attorney, for example, do it without promoting my name. There is no need they need to use our money to pay for their campaign giveaways, and that is what these items amount to being.
