It appears that government officials love to help each other out. The committee running the DNC in Denver, according to the Rocky Mountain News, has been allowed by the city council to use Denver’s public works gas pumps. What makes this particularly interesting is how the committee avoids federal and state taxes, and looks to pocket a profit of $466,125. Yeah, basically a cool half million to pad their coffers.

Denver must have at least one council member with some level of comon sense. Here’s her take:

“There’s something there that just doesn’t seem right to me because, in a sense, you’re saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me,” Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said. […] “I am just troubled by not having the payment of taxes for what I consider to be a privately funded party, and that’s what the host committee is: it’s a private organization,” she said.

“The DNC is not government. The RNC is not government,” said Faatz, who, at the time, had been told that the “same exact thing” was happening in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Funny thing is, here in Minnesota, the host of September’s RNC, the Republicans weren’t afforded tax-free gas. Continuing from the article:

Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee, said they’re getting their gas at the pump. “We’re not getting a tax break on fuel,” she said. “That’s not the set-up at this end.”

Is anyone really surprised that strings are pulled like this? Not I.

UPDATE 7/23 @ 8:30a: The city makes off like a crook in this as well. Their cute business venture won’t pay income taxes, either. Not only is this deal removing road taxes, but it is also removing general fund taxes, which might also go to state services. It really is, as Councilwoman Faatz said: “the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them.”