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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 4/19/12
U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) announced today that his office is returning almost $200,000 of its allocated budget for 2011, which will mean that for the 27th straight year his office is saving taxpayers’ money. Congressman Coble said the unspent funds for 2011 pushed his total savings to almost $1.7 million during his congressional tenure.
Rep. Coble said that in 2011, his office returned $187,246.45 in unspent funds from an office budget of $1,452,965. That amounts to 12.9% of the 2011 budget that was not spent. For his 27 years in office, Congressman Coble said that the total savings for his office is $1,676,696.29.
“It’s easy for someone to call themselves a fiscal conservative,” Rep. Coble stated, “but it’s much more difficult to actually live up to that standard. For 27 straight years, we have returned unspent office funds to the taxpayers – keeping a pledge that I made to the citizens of the 6th District. There is nothing easier than spending someone else’s money – just look at the scandal unfolding involving the GSA. Those bureaucrats forgot that they were spending taxpayers’ money. We have provided outstanding constituent services to the residents of the 6th District without wasting their money.”
Congressman Coble maintains a fulltime staff of 16, with eight employees in Washington and eight in North Carolina. Four of the district staffers work in the main office in Greensboro and there are four, one-person offices in Asheboro, Graham, High Point, and Granite Quarry.
Below is a listing of the amount of unspent funds for each year that Rep. Coble has been in office:
1985 $5,176.47
1986 $7,344.00
1987 $5,000.02
1988 $17,700.00
1989 $32,661.16
1990 $17,592.26
1991 $14,002.00
1992 $32,436.24
1993 $38,000.00
1994 $19,216.18
1995 $16,114.65
1996 $123,005.79
1997 $71,544.91
1998 $37,409.22
1999 $66,106.77
2000 $41,388.13
2001 $77,469.50
2002 $55,922.55
2003 $89,682.36
2004 $71,346.04
2005 $47,248.11
2006 $89,545.43
2007 $71,787.80
2008 $67,847.42
2009 $156,663.14
2010 $217,239.69
2011 $187,246.45
Total $1, 676,696.29
Each member of the House receives approximately the same amount of funds and the only difference is a larger travel allowance for those representatives from states distant from Washington. “One way that we have had substantial savings over the years comes from not abusing the congressional mailing system,” Rep. Coble added. “We do not clog up people’s mailboxes with materials that are nothing more than self-promotions paid for by the taxpayers. Since 1990, we have produced no newsletters, questionnaires or any other form of unsolicited mailings. If you contact us, we will respond to you. That philosophy has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, and I am proud to say that we have returned almost $1.7 million of taxpayers’ money.”
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