Glenn Beck Is An Expensive Guest Of Honor

Glenn Beck is no big fan of government spending, but he put his hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington more than $17,000 in the hole when he came back to town for a celebration in his honor last month. Where did most of that money wind up?

The town was flooded with between 800 and 1000 demonstrators for and against Beck, and security precautions filled up most of the bill. The town’s police chief called it

“the biggest protest he’s seen in his 32 years as a Mount Vernon police officer.”

The Seattle Times‘ Erik Lacitis reports:

[Mount Vernon] mostly for 239 hours of police overtime…

The hours started to add up, with “preplanning” overtime ringing up $4,425.84.

Eventually, 38 law-enforcement people were involved, including officers from neighboring towns, as well as the State Patrol and Skagit County Sheriff’s Office. As part of an agreement in which jurisdictions in the area share police help, officers from other jurisdictions were not paid by Mount Vernon, but from their own agencies’ budgets. Those sums have not been added up.

It’s unclear where the money is going to come from: last month, the Mount Vernon City Council unanimously voted not to sponsor the event. Bumper stickers and Ramahanukwanzmas holiday cards, maybe?

(h/t Romenesko; photo via Tikkun)

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