Obama Madison Rally and the Taxpayers

A big event like Obama's rally in Madison yesterday costs big bucks.

Who picks up the bill?

In part, you, the taxpayer.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Now that the University of Wisconsin-Madison has cleaned up after Tuesday's political rally featuring President Barack Obama, officials at the school are preparing a bill for the president's political operatives.

But the Dane County Sheriff's Department won't do the same. The department will swallow any extra cost for protection during the event.

Vince Sweeney, UW-Madison's vice chancellor for university relations, said the university is still tallying up the expenses for the visit to request reimbursement from the Democratic National Committee.

"That's going to take a while," he said. "It was a big event."

A contract between the UW System Board of Regents and the DNC calls for the party to pay $10,500 for 10 security officers from the university, electricity and other utilities and other basic services. The contract allows UW-Madison to bill the Democratic Party for other expenses.

Sweeney said that in addition to $10,500, the DNC had paid directly for some of the expenses, such as the stage, insurance and bathrooms for the event and the fencing around Library Mall.

Dane County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said 129 sheriff's deputies worked during the event and that a little more than half were on their regular shift. The rest worked overtime.

It doesn't sit well with me that tax dollars should be used to bankroll such a partisan political rally.

Obama's appearance actually adds to the budget burden for Wisconsinites.

Nice.