The $500-a-Month Commissioner With a $335K Checkbook

Greetings Neighbors

 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins is quick to point out that the County Charter sets her Commission salary to only $500 per month.

 It sounds almost self-sacrificing.

 What she doesn’t talk about is the taxpayer-funded checkbook that comes with the job.

 Every commissioner receives control over a Community-Based Organization Discretionary Reserve. During the four most recent fiscal years, Danielle Cohen Higgins’ District 8 received:

 $325,000 + $335,000 + $335,000 + $335,000 = $1.33 million.

Let’s be clear. Cohen Higgins cannot put this money in her own pocket. It must be distributed to nonprofit organizations and community events.

But within those broad boundaries, the Commissioner decides who gets recommended to get your tax dollars.

A charity gets a check.

A civic organization gets an event sponsorship.

A business group gets money for its gala.

A PTA, athletic team or community association receives a contribution.

And who gets thanked from the stage?

Who appears in the photograph?

Who sends out the press release?

Who leverages this to get votes when election season arrives?

The Commissioner.

This isn’t literally buying votes.

That would be illegal. 

It is something subtler and far more politically useful. It allows an incumbent to use taxpayer money to “buy” influence in the currency of gratitude, access, publicity and political goodwill.

You, the taxpayer, supplies the cash. The Commissioner gets the credit.

That is one impressive arrangement for someone supposedly earning only $500 per month.

And that explains the illustration.

 The taxpayers filled the saddlebag.

Danielle Cohen Higgins gets to ride through District 8, tossing the money into the air and enjoying the applause. 

Ride ’em, Cowgirl!