I am disgusted by recent published articles that local county commissioner Mark Ouimet has billed “we the taxpayers” of Washtenaw County over $35,000 for attending meetings, community events and perhaps even ribbon-cuttings and baby showers. This is the same guy who is now running for the 52nd District (House seat) to represent us in Lansing. My first question is: “Can we afford to have Mr. Ouimet handling our state income tax money?” Then I ask: “How can a candidate like Mr. Ouimet claim that he stands for lower taxes and at the same time gorge on the public trough for $35,000 extra?”

And all this time, since 2005 when he was first on the job, I thought the $15,500 per year in salary was his only compensation for being a public servant. I also thought that he was being extremely generous with his time to be everywhere. Well, I was wrong. Instead, he made the conscious choice to charge us an additional $35,000 for showing up in our community, and for mileage. Now that’s politics as usual.

I wonder how many preschool lunches $35,000 would have bought. I can only guess how many senior citizen services $35,000 could have provided. Let’s do ourselves a favor for the future and not vote for Mr. Ouimet before he gets somewhere that he can do significantly more harm spending our limited Michigan resources.

Frank Grohnert Lyndon Township