Okay, legislators may not be for sale … yet … but they are a dime a dozen up in Hartford. And how they spend tax payer money, is of course of interest to all of us. That’s why Connpolitics.tv is reporting that a new web site is in town, er the state, and it is casting open the office of the comptrollers records so that we all can take a look at who the state is busy writing check to. It’s called, appropriately enough, ctsunlight.org. Check it out.
In 2009 the Department of Transportation spent $364,949 in restaurants. Really! They really like 99 Restaurant. American Steakhouse and Chillis. They even may have stopped in Norwalk to go to the Bulls Head Diner, but spent only $180 instead of the thousands they rack up at the aforementioned chains. Orems in Wilton did a little better at $646 and Westport’s Sherwood Diner got a $2,498 tab.
So what was the biggest restaurant tab, other than genericaly saying they spent the majority of money on pizza places and Italian restaurants? Hometown Pizza III, which according to google is in Thomston, CT with a tab $7,417.
I couldn’t get several links to work on their site. I would have liked to read about CT residents opposing health care reform. Personally, I wasn’t asked, but it seems to me there are plenty of people of all political persuasions who think we DO need to fix the system. I got nervous when I saw the group was having a fundraiser at a posh Greenwich club. I’m sure they’d have no problem letting in the common folk down there…just stay away from their beaches. The whole thing (outwardly a very commendable concept) just seems to be a cover for a partisan attack on the Democratic majority in the state legislature.
It would be nice to have that public information if there wasn’t an ulterior agenda behind it.
barnstorm: The link you were trying is here. The yankee Institute is one of the fiscal focused groups, so policy interpretation beware, but the data on the site is good.
Thanks TG. I still suspect the poll however. How many of the respondents have actually read the 1000+ pages of the bills to know what is specifically proposed, or are those people just relying on what various blogs and radio talk shows SAY is in the proposed legislation?
You can ask anyone about anything, regardless of whether they actually know anything about what you’re asking. We then try to initiate policy based on a bunch of responses grounded in ignorance.
Barnstorm: Understand. I meant the data from the State, not the polls. A poll is only as good as your sample and questions, and I hadn’t delved into that one.
Fair enough TG. Thanks.
Fun site. I chose one my favorite agencies, the Department of Transportation, and selected all payments in 2009 to any restaurant or food place with PIZZA in the name. The total spent was over $149,000. If a pizza cost $14.90, that’s 10,000 pizzas or over 27 pizzas a day.
Where do I sign up?
Correction. Reran the selection without my first selection of expense type, like restaurant. The DOT pizza bill came to $189,668 in 2009 or almost 35 of those pizzas a day — or 50 pies a work day in 2009. That’s 87% of the total state pizza bill.