No by all means, have fun, it's not like we have rent to afford or anything …

We’re a giving bunch, us taxpayers in Colorado. Not only did we give no fucks when Governor Hickenlooper blew $2 million on racist, human-sized rat cages, but now we’re footing the bill for our mayor, his family and a few of his cronies to attend Super Bowl 50. We’re saints, truly.

Earlier this week, the Denver Post reported that Mayor Michael Hancock went to Denver’s Board of Ethics about how to pay for him and his family to attend Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, CA. Two years ago, when the Broncos faced the Seattle Seahawks in East Rutherford, NJ (an appearance we'd rather forget), ethical standards of the mayor’s trip were questioned when “former city contractors indirectly paid for the mayor, his mother and two staffers to watch the Broncos' previous championship appearance.”

The board later found nothing wrong with how the trip was paid for, but it caused enough of a bad taste that the City’s Code of Ethics was polished, hence Hancock presently seeking approval and secondary opinions for this trip.

While Hancock plans to pay for the flights of both his wife and daughter, the city will reportedly pay for Hancock’s flights, hotel rooms and general expenses for him and staffers who will also be in attendance. In 2014, expenses reached in excess of $40,000.

Actual passes to the game are being provided by the Denver Broncos.

"Going to the Super Bowl presents any city, like Denver, with a unique opportunity to promote the city and to increase tourism," says Amber Miller, Hancock’s communications director, in an email to the Post. "As such, the mayor and a team of support staff will be traveling to San Francisco."

In contrast, Governor Hickenlooper’s camp says that he and his son plan on attending the Super Bowl as well, but will pay for the entire trip himself — just as he did two years ago.

Understandably, work trips cost money and people are generally awarded tax breaks or reimbursements for these efforts. Taking money from the residents of Colorado isn’t technically wrong of Hancock to do, as the Board of Ethics will likely agree with, but let’s not gloss over the reality with fancy statements claiming that it’s something it isn’t. The mayor is going to the Super Bowl because he can, not because he’s going to shake hands with commoners and invite them to Colorado to be tourists and on the clock the entire time.

But sending a dignitary with an entourage is fucking expensive. Has any "regular" Colorado resident spent $40,000 on a weekend vacation lately? Unlikely. Our state is in a relatively fair condition right now, in contrast to others, but using city funds to send people places they don’t need to be seems backwards. We’ve got kids who still can’t afford decent meals at school, bridge infrastructure that hasn’t been touched since the ‘70s and displaced families because of exorbitant rent fuckery.

Mayors should be leaders by their own example. We’re still pretty disillusioned by the governor and his flip-flopping stance on weed (considering he’s an important phat cat only because of the world’s most dangerous drug), but at least he’s paying his own bills. H-cock could learn a few lessons from Hickey.

Just pay for your own entertainment if you're in a monetarily privileged position, is basically where we’re going with all of this … or maybe we're just salty … </rant>