NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday April 14, 2008
Top Five Ways Shadegg Is Wasting Our Tax Dollars
Top Five Ways Shadegg Is Wasting Our Tax Dollars
Many Arizonans pay their taxes today, but are not aware of the ways their Congressman wastes their money.
When taxpayers pay today, they should remember the top 5 ways John Shadegg is wasting their tax dollars:
1) Shadegg takes unnecessary trips on the taxpayer’s dime.
Shadegg vocally has opposed federal earmarks, but doesn’t mind charging his trips to the taxpayer’s tab. Shadegg has taken eight federally funded trips to places such as Japan, Greece, Sicily, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, and Egypt in the last five years, expensing more than $46,000.
2) Shadegg Gives Billions in Subsidies to Oil & Gas Industry.
Most members of Congress criticized oil executives last month for taking billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies and not investing in renewable resources amid record prices for oil and gas.
But John Shadegg sided with big oil… again. Shadegg has also supported big oil time after time by voting for huge subsidies for their industry.
“I do not believe that funding renewable energy by taxing current forms of energy serves American customers very well,” Shadegg told CNN in an April 1 story.
Shadegg’s longstanding, cozy relationship with the oil, gas, and energy industry has garnered hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions according to Federal Election Commission records.
(http://opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.asp?CID=N00006425.)
3) Shadegg voted against the tax rebates in the Economic Stimulus Act.
Shadegg opposed 92 percent of Congress in opposing the Act, which provides tax rebates of up to $600 for individual taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $75,000 or $1200 for couples who jointly file and have a combined adjusted gross income of $150,000. With this Act, Arizona will receive an estimated $2.1 billion in rebates, but Shadegg voted against it.
4) Shadegg’s Congressional District Office is located in the wrong district; owes taxpayers $256k for breaking House rule.
Shadegg has run up a nearly $256,000 tab with taxpayers by locating his Congressional office in the wrong district, records show. Shadegg has been using tax dollars to pay for an office located in Rep. Ed Pastor’s 4th District for the past six years. U.S. House rules say that Shadegg is personally liable for the tax dollars used for the lease of an office outside his District.
5) Shadegg Sends Taxpayer Dollars To Alaska and Texas, not Arizona
Although the federal earmark system needs reform, Shadegg refuses to ask for any federal money for local projects, which would allow taxpayer dollars to come back to Arizona. Instead, those dollars are going to other states.
This fiscal year, Arizona, the fastest growing state in the nation, will receive $18.70 per capita in federal earmarks. Alaska, with roughly a 10th of Arizona’s population, is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation, according to research reported in The Arizona Republic.
Alaska receives about three times as much as Arizona in actual dollars, $346 million to $119 million.
That means Arizona gets less money for water projects, bridge repairs, road construction and rural health clinics.