Snyder’s Flint water legal bills nearly triple to $3.4M
Lansing Gov. Rick Snyders office has racked up $3.4 million in legal bills from private laws firms representing the governor and his staff in the Flint water crisis almost tripling the original $1.2 million budget.
Snyders office disclosed Thursday that two law firms billed the governor for $1.2 million in work in February, March and April and that another $2.2 million is needed to pay legal bills for May, June and July.
All told, Snyders office and three state departments have spent a combined $5 million to date on private attorneys representing employees under investigation or named as defendants in multiple civil lawsuits related to Flints water contamination, according to records compiled by The Detroit News.
To pay for the mounting legal bills for the governors office, a $400,000 contract for Detroit attorney Eugene Drikers law firm has been increased to $1.4 million, Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton said Thursday.
Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/08/18/snyders-flint-water-legal-bills-nearly-triple/88980950/
[font color=330099]The $5 million in legal bills would have been a nice down payment for fixing the problem in Flint. The Legislature should refuse to pay the legal bills for the governor since his administration was negligent and incompetent.[/font]