Paris, London, New York, Halifax. What do these these four cities have in common? According to this news report from an ABC TV affiliate in Houston, they’re all places where high-flying officials go to live it up on the taxpayer’s dime.
In his “Port-o-Plenty” investigation, undercover reporter Wayne Dolcefino explains that three bigwigs from the Port of Houston and their spouses enjoyed “one long night of food and liquor” at Ryan Duffy’s, among other extravagances while in Halifax, all compliments of the hard-working folks of Harris County, Texas. He goes on to expose how the Port of Houston paid $7,500 each for two plane tickets to London, and spent over $2,500 for one day of entertainment in New York. As irresponsible spending of public dollars goes, this looks pretty bad from Houston’s perspective.
But from Halifax’s perspective, this report is an advertisement announcing that our little city can keep up with the world capitals when it comes to being a playground for expense account living. Way to go, Halifax! And to all you big spenders out there, listen to Dolcefino: We welcome your credit cards with open arms.
Besides lots of close-ups of photocopied receipts, the piece also features clips from a promotional video featuring Best of Halifax-winning local actor Jeremy Webb playing Lord Haligonian. Hopefully Webb made some of that crazy Harris County coin, too.
This article appears in May 5-11, 2011.
Care to learn more about the Port of Houston and how they treat locals? Go to http://www.knowtheport.org
Aside from the obvious muckraking stance taken by this reporter, I am baffled by his harping on how the Port of Houston takes in tax money. Why would they need to do that if they have a revenue stream?
You call it “muckraking”, I call it holding rich people accountable for their criminal activities and abuse of the working class.