There is a ton of waste in every government's budget. I would love to be able to have the entire budget for my local, state, or even federal government and go through it line by line.

I would be any of us could find more than enough savings to prolong any tax increases for years and years.

Hand-inked calligraphy? Use a freaking font already. Cost = $0.

This made me think about the case with Ron Paul being the sole person who voted against giving Rosa Parks a congressional medal. Ron Paul voted against it as a waste of tax payer's money. When his fellow congressmen gave him hell for debating against awarding her, he suggested that she be given one and that all the members of congress pitch in to pay for it. No one accepted that proposal.

ridiculous

I think in an ideal world council members would make the median salary for the area they serve. That way greedy f**kers wouldn't take the job, you would get people that are in it because they really want to make positive changes.

Whatever. Yeah, they're short on cash. Unfortunately $1 million isn't anything when you're talking about the budget for an enormous city.

$1 Million is .189% of their deficit.
$1 Million here and there isn't their problem. They could cut ridiculous spending entirely if they wanted to. It still won't scratch the surface.

According to US Census Bureau's 2007 Data, the population of Los Angeles is 9,878,554.

If you divide it up evenly, it comes out to taxpayers paying an annual tax of $.10 for calligraphy. That's less than the cost of one piece of gum.

Years ago, I visited a US Navy office in D.C. to help them with their word processing needs. The application -- to imprint people's names on beautiful gilded certificates. There was a single person responsible. I'm sure he wasn't paid $1 million.

But the printing for those certificates certainly was high. They were gorgeous.

Why is calligraphy so expensive?

Multiply ridiculous spending/$1 million by every governmental department (cuz you know they all do it) and over even just a few years time..it would translate into billions. That doesn't mean much to out-of-touch politicians, I know, but it makes all the difference to people who have to go without unemployment compensation, emergency services, etc. People that paid their taxes only to see them wasted on some damn calligraphy.

It seems California, especially, has no use for the words 'budget' and 'accountability'.

I'm guessing because of the supplies needed as well as wages paid to those who are doing it..on a large, state-wide scale, that is.

They should buy their calligraphy on ebay, that would probably be cheaper.

It's a dying art, so those that still do it the traditional way are few and far between. Also, its hard as hell to write well with a traditional calligraphy pen. I had the displeasure of taking a course in calligraphy, and I spent more time outside of class for that class than I did for my chemistry class.

And at $35.74 a scroll, that's not too bad considering I'd imagine one scroll would take at least five hours to make, if all done by hand.

What the hell do you need taxpayer financed cars and gas for if you're earning $178,789 a year?

The taxpayers should decide who the certificates go to, not these morons.

It's hard and only a few people do it well...so they can charge a lot!