Group: $2M of Mo. taxpayer money spent on ‘questionable purposes’
More than $2.4 million of Missouri taxpayers’ money was spent “for questionable purposes” over the past eight years, including purchases made at bakeries, beauty salons, bra stores, coffee shops and picture-framing galleries, according to a review by the National Taxpayers Union.
The state of Missouri spent $15,400 at Ann's Bra Shop from 2000 to 2008 for "professional services" and "clothing supplies," according to the group.
Over the same period, government employees spent more than $1.6 million at coffee shops, $387,000 at framing stores, $278,000 at florists and nurseries, and $70,800 at donut shops.
The National Taxpayers Union said it pulled expenditure information from the Missouri Accountability Portal, which was launched by Gov. Matt Blunt.
"Taxpayers should never be forced to finance bureaucrats' ‘I love me’ walls of framed awards and photos, nor should residents be shelling out for floral bouquets, beauty treatments or caffeine fixes," said Kristina Rasmussen, NTU’s government affairs director, in a statement.
"Clearly, no Missouri politicians could claim with a straight face that all of the fat has been cut out of the state's budget."
Rasmussen continued by saying the state’s expenditure Web site is too vague in describing the nature of the purchases but said the name of the vendors were enough to raise eyebrows payday loans in 1 hour. She urged the state to post line-item information from purchase receipts.
In response to the group’s questions about purchases, Blunt said Friday he directed the state’s Office of Administration to examine the expenses and to report its separate findings.
“This is exactly what we expected and envisioned when we created the MAP site,” Blunt said in a statement. “Transparency and openness help root out wasteful spending and we welcome this scrutiny.”
The governor’s office said it recently heard from several visitors to the spending site who questioned the state’s expenses to Ann’s Bra Shop in Vandalia. After Blunt directed a review of the expenses, the Office of Administration found they were legitimate Department of Corrections expenses for special-needs products for female inmates in Missouri’s prison system, the governor’s office said.
The National Taxpayers Union, based in Alexandria, Va., is a nonpartisan citizen organization that advocates lower taxes and smaller government.
Filed under: legal by Finance Boss