During Governor Brad Little’s State of the State Address on Monday, January 8, he presented what was essentially an infomercial touting his Idaho Works plan. The video, lasting approximately 12 minutes, starts at the 8 minute mark in the address, and features Little, Congressman Russ Fulcher, Speaker Mike Moyle, and Senate Pro Tem Chuck Winder:
I was curious about how much taxpayer money the governor’s office spent on this presentation that was designed to ask for more taxpayer money, so I submitted a public record’s request to the office. They got back to me last week with an invoice from advertising agency Drake Cooper for $15,000:
This is not exceedingly high for a 12 minute video. I was hearing estimates of as high as $50,000, so this wasn’t that bad of deal. Of course, any taxpayer money spent to acquire more taxpayer money seems somewhat perverse, but it could have been worse.
Had the records request come back with a massive number I would have shared it as an indictment of the office’s profligacy, so in the interest of fairness I am sharing this as an example of the office’s relative frugality.
