Taxpayers pay big bucks for government subscriptions

By: Mike Deeson

Tampa, Florida - The International Right of Way Association, the Society of Government Travel Professionals, the Florida Association of Purchasing Officers: those organizations and subscriptions to a variety of magazines including Sports Illustrated are costing taxpayers big bucks, because local governments are paying fees to get the publications or membership fees to belong.

We asked people if they enjoyed being members of these organizations and most had no idea that taxpayer money was being used for memberships in groups like the International Signal Association or the National Notary Association.

You might wonder what groups like The National Notary Association do. Do they sit around all day and notarize documents?

That shouldn't be confused with the Huckleberry Bonding Association, which taxpayers are paying for as well as the Notary Public underwriters. Then there are organizations like the automated Meter Reading Organization. What's that all about? Their stated purpose is "standardization justification and deployment practices and truth application advancement of customer service and resource technology." There is also the question of multiple memberships.

Hillsborough Deputy County Administrator Wally Hill says the membership and subscription fees the county pays is a bargain for taxpayers because it makes the government employees more efficient

Hill says if we can help them maintain their professional credentials and knowledge without having to have them travel somewhere to a conference to do that access to materials we get from subscriptions and memberships, money well spent.

What's that costing you? In the past two years Hillsborough County has spent more $3,080,518 in subscriptions and memberships, Pinellas taxpayers coughed up more $1,756,690. In St. Pete $1,026,836 and Tampa spent $646,739 on subscriptions and memberships

Taxpayers like Ruth Szemer told us wow. That's a lot of money and Szemer asks do they do us any good.

Although those in government say those memberships and subscription do a lot of good, taxpayers don't seemed convinced. Debbie McKinney's response was typical as she says that's an awful expensive budget for that we could use it for much better things than that right now.