Joe Garcia: David Rivera's "political stunt" cost Florida taxpayers $364,500

[ccharles000]

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/05/joe-garcia-david-riveras-political-stunt-cost-florida-taxpayers-364500.html

Democrat Joe Garcia is seizing on news that the state last week paid $364,500 to 13 travel agencies that provide charter flights to Cuba to bash his likely Republican congressional rival, state Rep. David Rivera.

Federal judge Alan S. Gold ordered the payment after finding amendments to the law that regulates flights to Cuba were unconstitutional. The amendments -- backed by Rivera -- required the agencies to post one-time bonds ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 for trips to Cuba. Gold ordered the reimbursement for legal expenses the agencies incurred while challenging – and eventually defeating – the legislation.

Garcia said the "news that David Rivera's political stunt cost Florida’s families hundreds of thousands of dollars in a battered economy is disturbing and another reminder of why we can’t trust him with taxpayer dollars in Washington. The tax dollars Mr. Rivera wasted could've been used to reduce class sizes or hire more teachers and police officers in our community. It's time politicians stopped spending taxpayers’ money like it was theirs. South Florida's families need a leader they can trust, not someone like Mr. Rivera who will waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to score political points."

[Scurrilous]

1. K & R

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