Obama’s latest Nevada trip cost local police a bundle
Along with the crowds that cheer and jeer him, President Barack Obama brings something else whenever he makes a trip to Nevada: a big expense for local taxpayers.
The Secret Service bears the brunt of costs to protect every president. But state and local police have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars providing extra officers for crowd and traffic control during Obama’s trips here.
And they won’t be getting any of that money back.
The president’s late November trip to the Las Vegas area for a major policy speech on immigration — followed by a weekend at a Henderson resort and rounds of golf — cost state and local police almost $170,000.
Last week, Henderson was still planning to send an invoice seeking reimbursement from the Democratic National Committee. But officials weren’t expecting to get any money, city spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said.
The Secret Service said it never covers local agencies’ costs for presidential trips.
“There’s no mechanism for us to do that,” Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said. “We aren’t funded to pay police overtime.”
Obama has been to Nevada more than a dozen times as president for major policy speeches and political fundraisers. In 2012, he came here to prepare for a debate with Mitt Romney.
And he probably will keep coming in the remaining two years of his term. As a swing state in presidential elections and the home of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who will be running for another term, Nevada will be crucial in 2016.
Henderson police said they spent $143,685.21 for Obama’s Nov. 21-23 trip, while the 2012 trip cost the city $135,134. Each time, Obama spent multiple days in Nevada and stayed at a Henderson resort.
The Nevada Highway Patrol spent $27,814.15 in salary and overtime for 102 people who provided security during some part of Obama’s latest three-day visit, said Sgt. Alan Davidson, who works in administrative services for the Highway Patrol’s Las Vegas Region.
Las Vegas police had no extra costs because they used officers already on duty to help protect the president, officer Jesse Roybal said. Obama played golf at the famed Shadow Creek course in North Las Vegas, but police there said last week they didn’t know how much they spent on security.
Some of Obama’s trips to Nevada have lasted just a few hours and thus cost much less than the weekend stays.
The high cost of protecting the president and first family has become a political issue, with conservatives criticizing the president for taking an African trip with his family last year during the “sequestration” budget cuts.
But the Secret Service is sworn to protect every president and his family everywhere they go, regardless of whether the trip is official, political or personal.
That protection and related military costs are expensive, especially in less- developed countries where the Secret Service can’t rely on local help. A Washington Post report last year showed a presidential trip to Africa involved a Navy ship with a full trauma hospital on standby and 24-hour protection by fighter jets. The estimated cost of the trip overall: $60 million to $100 million.
The Post reported those measures were in line with past trips by presidents of both parties. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both went to Africa, with Clinton’s 1998 trip costing at least $42 million — not including Secret Service expenses — and the cost for Bush’s trips not released.
Hoback, the Secret Service spokesman, said he wasn’t aware of any complaints from local police departments about the costs of protection. But Secret Service advance teams meet with state and local police ahead of presidential visits, and if any agency had a financial hardship, they could bring it up, Hoback said.
Privately, some officials here have grumbled about the unreimbursed costs of protecting the president. But at least publicly, police say they’re glad to do it.
“He’s our president, he’s a public figure, and it’s really police’s job to protect the president,” Richards said.
