15 Jun 2009 No Boo-Hoo-Hoo for California’s Money Woes, If It Can Still Afford Public Parties

Posted at 12:12h in Articles, Blog by

California’s free-spending ways have led it to seek the money of federal taxpayers, but don’t think that means Los Angeles is trying to stop spending money on frivolities.

The city intends to spend a million dollars on a victory parade for the Los Angeles Lakers, despite the city’s need to cut its budget by hundreds of millions of dollars and the fact that unofficial celebrations turned criminal overnight, with crowds vandalizing buses and police cars and throwing rocks and bottles at police officers, resulting in five officers sustaining injuries.

The Lakers are a for-profit enterprise, and basketball is a game (it would be different if we were talking about a parade for returning war veterans). At a time when California is expecting federal taxpayers to bail it out of its own financial mess, the Lakers ought to be paying for its entire parade by itself.

E-mail any comments to the National Center for Public Policy Research at [email protected].
Subscribe to this blog’s feed.

Labels:



The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.