It also includes contact information for the congressman, tips about getting the rebate and information about who is eligible.
It's heartening that our elected officials are reaching out to stay in touch with their constituents but questionable whether this is the right vehicle to do so.
Do we really need a four-page mailer to add to the other pieces of mail we hopefully recycle, or throw away? Is this the best way for officials to contact constituents?
The mailer cost $72,825 and was sent to 211,585 homes in Vermont. In terms of cost, it comes out to 34 cents per piece. If one congressman in every state spends 34 cents per household (',146,000 households in the U.S. in 2005), it will cost $38,469,640. God forbid, U.S. senators should send similar mailers.
And that's just the dollar cost of designing, printing and mailing. What about the carbon cost of transporting those mailers to post offices and from post offices to post boxes? Is there no better way to help Vermonters, and other citizens, get the information they need in order to obtain their rebate checks?
Perhaps a postcard with contact numbers to call the congressman's office to have questions answered might have done the trick. Perhaps a phone campaign from the congressman's office to Vermont's 211,585 households might have been possible and certainly resulted in less paper.
Congressman Welch is to be commended for striving to make sure Vermonters know how to file for and receive what amounts to $225 million dollars for state residents. But next time -- think of our carbon footprints please!
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