On June 16th, members of the League of Municipalities rode on a CAT bus to the General Assembly.
This service was “provided as a courtesy” to the League, according to David Eatman, Raleigh’s Transit Administrator, in response to my inquiry on the matter.
With CAT’s marginal cost at $68/hr, and 11 hours of service provided to the League, the total cost of this ride was $748.
What does this mean? The City of Raleigh paid to let people from other city governments lobby our state government for money.
And if that isn’t absurd enough, it gets better. The whole thing is completely legal under The Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR Part 604, Section 605.6).
Maybe it’s just me, but when our government is already in the hole, spending over $700 to allow other governments to ask for more money to put us further in the hole just doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Hey, but maybe they’ll also pay to repair the wall I damaged from banging my head into it out of frustration.
Hooray for bureaucracies and ill-spent money?
