Thursday, January 24, 2013

Did you happen to watch the presidential inauguration Monday? Many of our viewers did and are asking, in a time of economic challenges and rebounding economies, how much money did the inauguration cost taxpayers?

Good question.

Hundreds of thousands of people, a big parade and a full day of celebrations; watching from the sofa of your living room, it doesn’t look like a country short on cash. Several of you have asked, how many of the taxpayer dollars are spent on the presidential inauguration?

I can’t tell you the exact amount because, like most things government, it’s hard to track the dollars and cents. But I can tell you that most of what you witnessed on Monday was paid for by corporate and private donations. Companies like AT&T and Microsoft ponied up millions.

All that cash from high rollers and big business pay for all the fun stuff: the parade, the parties, the lip-syncing celebrities.

But everything else, stuff you don’t see, like security and transportation, that’s on the taxpayers’ dime. That cost is usually more than the cost of the fun stuff.

Total cost for a presidential inauguration, security included, has been estimated to cost at least $100 million.

If you have a good question, send it to me at news@kake.com or find me on Twitter at twitter.com/herndon10. I’ll answer your good question every Thursday on KAKE News at 10.