On Your Dime

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about how Congress should cut the budget and be a better steward of taxpayer dollars. So, I thought I would take a look through the document that shows how lawmakers spend their office budgets.

My focus was narrowed to one basic question - how many members of the House spend money from their office accounts to lease automobiles, whether for use in their districts or while they are in Washington, D.C.

First, let's stipulate that there is nothing illegal about spending office account money on a car or cars.

My review of what's called the "Statement of Disbursements" from the House shows that at least 87 members of the House used money to lease some kind of vehicle for their official work.

Some of those 87 were frugal with your tax dollars - the lowest lease that I could find was by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who paid $219 per month to get a vehicle from Acme Auto Leasing.

At the other end of the scale, there were some much larger numbers for those who made a lump sum payment on their vehicle.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from North Carolina, spent $24,259.64  on an automobile lease with White's Chevrolet Cadillac, according to his office expense figures.  Those payments are usually for a two-year lease, so that works out to just over $1,000 per month for a vehicle.

Also making a big payment was Rep. Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, who spent $23,733.85 on a two year automobile lease with Sandy Springs Toyota in his home state, just under $1,000 per month.

Seven different members had large lease payments like that listed in the latest expense report issued by the House of Representatives, including  Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who paid a lump sum of $20,000 along with monthly payments of $167.99.

That comes out to a lease average of $1,001.32 per month.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) paid $17,522.63 (with no extra monthly payments) for an average of $730.10/month.

Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA)  checked in with a $16,970.23 payment, for an average cost of $707.09/month.   Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) was at $15,478.07, for an average of $644.92/month.

The last lump sum was by Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) at $15,258.30.

"The Congressman leased a 2011 Toyota Highlander Hybrid to use as a mobile office around the district," said Sullivan spokesman Vaughan Jennings.

"When the vehicle was leased in 2010, an original lump sum payment of $15,258.30 was made resulting in a monthly payment of $258.30 for this year."

When you work out those details, the total cost comes to around $894 per month for that two year lease.

While that might sound like a lot, after crunching all the numbers,  the highest monthly cost for a leased vehicle was for the Delegate from Puerto Rico, Democrat Pedro Pierluisi, who pays $1,400 per month for an automobile lease.

That's no shocker, since Pierluisi was found to be the biggest spender in the Congress in 2010.

Following him was Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-MT) has two separate automobile lease payments which total $1,299.98.

Next are a group of Democrats: Ed Towns (D-NY) at $1,285.06, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) at $1,258.76, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) $1,251.66, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) at $1,139.26 and Rep. Bobby Rush at $1,027.53.

At exactly $1,000 per month for an automobile lease is freshman Republian Chip Cravaack of Minnesota and Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX).

Is a vehicle lease over $1,000 or over a good way to spend taxpayer dollars? I will leave it to you to comment below.