State Rep. David Richardson (D-Miami Beach) wants to know what the Sunshine State spent fighting 
equal marriage rights for the past several years.
Richardson wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday and asked for “a full accounting” of the amount of taxpayer money and resources her office spent on numerous appeal to prohibit gay marriage — until she gave up last month after the Supreme Court ruling that bans state bans on gay marriage. She had stopped appealing in January, when the court took up the case, in order to wait for the court’s clarification.
“We have always sought finality on this important constitutional issue, and today the U.S. Supreme Court provided the clarity our state and country was seeking,” Bondi said last week. “Legal efforts were not about personal beliefs or opinions, but rather, the rule of law.”
Richardson does not sound very forgiving.
“For far too long, your office has appealed the decisions from judges who ruled in favor of marriage equality,” Richardson 
wrote Bondi on Thursday. “If your office had not continuously fought those rulings in appellate courts, gay people could have married earlier in Florida.
“Other Attorneys General, like Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, chose a different path — to not defend their state’s bans o same-sex marriage,” he added, referring to Bondi’s excuse that she was just defending the state’s ban, which was adopted by voters in 2008.
“I am hearing from many constituents who are upset that scarce and valuable state resources were wasted. My constituents want answers,” Richardson wrote. “I am herein requesting a full accounting of the amount of taxpayer money and resources spent defending the state’s ban on gay marriage. Please produce all records, including time sheets or summaries, outside counsel bills, invoices and other documents that detail the amount of time and money spent litigating this issue.
“Do not offer ‘attorney work product’ as an excuse for denying records, as the matter is now settled law,” Richardson wrote.
He posted the letter on Facebook and said the funds “could have been used to educate our children or feed the hungry.”
Richardson also told his “friends” he’d keep us posted on the answer.
Ladra bets its in the millions.
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…hold her feet to the fire. Pam Bondi is a disgrace. One of the sorriest AG’s this state has ever been saddled with. A far cry from the exemplary Bob Butterworth. She truly is reprehensible.
[…] DAVID RICHARDSON TO PAM BONDI: COST OF FIGHTING EQUALITY? via Elaine de Valle of Political Cortadito […]
Besides the money down by the State AG, how much extra have effected citizens paid in income taxes as they could marry until 1/6/15 and how much extra have couples who have since married paid in extra imputed taxes for their spousal benefits. I know I our case the expense that could have been avoided and and spent in FL was approximately $10K. If she didn’t delay marriage equality into 2015 and if we would have married in the state we call home, Florida, during 2014, which we would have our Fed Income Tax liability would have been > $8K lower.
i applaud David Richardson and Stephen Cody for their efforts . As a Florida Resident i want to know what this fruitless appeals cost me as a taxpayer.
Bondi needs to be honest and totally upfront what she spent and WHY
Moreover, I’d like a listing of all attorneys consulted in this matter. And I’d go one step further. I’d like to see all the attorneys’ files. When you do work for the state, you entire file, including correspondence and notes. And the attorneys should be reminded that they have to keep the files intact in accord with the state’s record retention law.