Sunday, June 21, 2009

AZ U.S. House members' budgets

Info courtesy Politico.

The linked article is dated June 19, so for the sake of easy math, I'm assuming the numbers are current as of June 15. The presumption is that the amount spent represents the amount spent through 5.5 months of a 12-month year, 0r 45.83% of the year.

That might not be perfectly accurate (I don't know for sure what Politico's cut-off date was), but since everyone is subject to the same assumption, it works for comparison's sake.

Representative
2009 Allotment ($)
Total Spent ($)
% of budget spent

Jeff Flake (R-AZ6.)
1,559,332.00
301,492.87
19.33%

Trent Franks (R-AZ2)
1,604,247.00
278,691.39
17.37%

Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8)
1,527,622.00
270,642.79
17.72%

Raul Grijalva (D-AZ7)
1,508,218.00
276,943.30
18.36%

Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ1)
1,515,010.00
135,196.04
8.92%

Harry Mitchell (D-AZ5)
1,515,410.00
264,989.60
17.49%

Ed Pastor (D-AZ4)
1,483,786.00
268,599.51
18.1%

John Shadegg (R-AZ3)
1,512,691.00
298,370.28
19.72%

Other than a few outliers (like Kirkpatrick's <9%), the AZ delegation and Congress as a whole is pretty consistent. At nearly the halfway point of the year, most House members have spent 17 - 21% of their budgets, leading me to believe that either -

1. Some of their bigger expenses are yet to come; or

2. Their office budgets are incredibly inflated, perhaps so that members can generate good press in December with press releases touting their frugality as evidenced by how much money they are returning at the end of the year.

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