Monday, May 7, 2012

Secretary Hosemann asks for (and receives) $500,000 to pay lawyers to defend a lawsuit that hasn't been filed

The Mississippi Tea Party is promoting a press conference by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann to address "derogatory comments made by an Obama Judtice (sic) Dept. employee about Mississippi and our new Voter ID Law which would not have passed without the hard work of you and our MS Tea Party."  Spelling issues aside, the Tea Party's promotion of Hosemann and his handling of Voter I.D. is interesting when you follow the money.

Tucked away in Section 11 (lines 163 - 165) of Senate Bill 3007, the bill which provides the special fund appropriations for the Secretary of State, is a line item that moves $395,000 in tax payer money to the Secretary of State for "litigation of voter identification."  The following section gives Secretary Hosemann the discretion to escalate the funds in the amount of $100,000.  That makes $495,000 of taxpayer money to pay lawyers to defend a lawsuit that is yet to be filed.

I guess its Taxed Enough Already unless the government is preemptively spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend one of our pet projects.

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