The Pork Barrel Pooka

During hard economic times and in an era when the GOP wants to see government shrunk into receivership irrelevancy, operatives should be heartened to know that a good dollar is still to be made off of government service. And as an Illinois House Republican staffer. Case in point, Kent Gaffney who gave up a lucrative state government job to finish Mark Beaubien's term in the 52nd Rep District. As readers of this blog are richly aware, the taxpayer was compensating Gaffney at $106K for his annual services as a research analyst ...

A Round-Trip Ticket to Pookaville

Gaffney moved to Lake County in 2008, but continued to work in Springfield. The same taxpayer was kind enough to also pay for Gaffney's Springfield lodging expenses at the elegant & convenient State House Inn.

Billing records indicate it cost $30,000 to house Gaffney and two other Republican staffers for a five month period ending June 1, 2011:

STATE OF ILLINOIS OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER AGENCY CONTRACT REPORT FOR BUDGET FISCAL YEAR 2011 THROUGH ACCOUNTING PERIOD 10/11 FOR PERIOD ENDING 04/29/11

Operatives, when visiting Springfield, are advised to consider a stay at the State House Inn -- elegant, convenient and a good deal awaits Republican staffers.

On an annual basis, Gaffney's Springfield lodging works out to about $24,000:

($30,000 / 3) * (1 year / 5 months) = $24,000

And that divided by 12 works out to about $2,000 a month. It goes without saying that $2,000 is not only a month's rent on a nice apartment but would cover most mortgage payments.

This can be illustrated against a real-world scenario, one chosen at random from among recent local home sales:

BlockShopper

You're an average working family and buy a nice house for $1,165,620. Given a deal of no money down and zero percent annual interest, $2,000 per month would pay off that house in under 50 years.

Did your LakeCountyEye mention that a tidy sum is still to be made off of government service, even in a bear market? Bears repeating!