OK, I promised it to you -- your rebate for paying for two senators with your hard earned tax dollars and getting only one. According to the
secretary of the Senate's report, it costs about $2.9 million to run Norm Coleman's Senate offices in 2008.
By my calculation that's about $8,000 a day that we, as taxpayers, shell out for offices in Washington, D.C. and in Minnesota. (As far as I can tell from the 2,000-plus page report, all senators get about the same amount of money.)
Right now we have not had a senator for 107 days. At $8,000 a day, that's about $856,000 we, as taxpayers, have funded for a Senate office that doesn't exist.
There are about 2.6 million taxpayers in Minnesota. So our rebate amounts to 32 cents a taxpayer. That's chump change, but $856,000 is not.
I think the state of Minnesota deserves this money back. Where should it go? How about to local elementary schools? I like that idea.
But it's your money too. I'm taking suggestions.
