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Vermonters
Pay for Legislature’s Unconstitutional Law
From the Vermont GOP,
September 6, 2007
"William Sorrell's
cavalier attitude in regard to Vermonters’ civil rights and hard earned
tax money is something our state can no longer afford." – Rob Roper
Vermont taxpayers are getting
a $1.4 million bill for loser’s legal fees, the consequences of the legislature
passing a radical, unconstitutional campaign finance law in 1997. What
is still unknown is how much taxpayer money the office of Vermont Attorney
General William Sorrell wasted in defending a law that intentionally violated
Vermonters’ First Amendment rights.
A June 27, 2006 New York
Times article quoted VPIRG’s Paul Burns:
"It was quite intentional
on the part of the Vermont legislature to pass a law that we knew would
challenge that kind of concept of money equaling speech."
And Sorrell:
"I know there are free
speech issues."
Allowing a special interest
group like VPIRG to direct millions of taxpayer dollars into a losing court
case is not a responsible use of public time and resources, and should
not happen again.
Vermonters owe thanks to
Governor Jim Douglas, all forty-nine house Republicans and one Democrat
for sustaining the veto of another constitutionally questionable campaign
finance bill pushed by VPIRG (S.164) on July 11, 2007.
Contact: Rob Roper,
802-223-3411, rroper@vtgop.org
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