Cities claim more than $750,000 in unpaid bills for Trump campaign events since 2016

Former President Donald Trump held a third rally last month in Erie, Pennsylvania, which is in the northwest of a swing state that could decide who wins the White House.

Like the other two times Trump traveled to Erie to mobilize his supporters, he left without paying the bill.

City officials have yet to calculate what the Trump campaign owes Erie for public safety costs during its last rally in September.

But according to a city official, Trump owes the city more than $40,000 for rallies he held there in 2018 and 2023.

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Erie, whose bills were previously reported by the Erie Times-News, is not the only city that has hosted Trump rallies and not been paid by the campaign.

Including Erie, four cities and one county confirmed to NBC News that they are still waiting for the Trump campaign to pay bills often associated with reimbursing the costs of local law enforcement and other first responder personnel.

The final price tag is more than $750,000 for those five jurisdictions, with some invoices dating back eight years.

At the same time, it is not always clear who has the legal responsibility to pay the bill.

Reached for comment, a Trump campaign official said in a text message that questions related to local law enforcement and first responder costs should be directed to the Secret Service.

At least two municipalities seeking reimbursements said they did not have a formal agreement with the Trump campaign on costs before the events.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC News that it is the agency, not the campaign, that typically requests local assistance for such campaign activities.

However, the Secret Service “lacks a mechanism to reimburse local governments for their support during protective events,” he said.

Guglielmi added that the agency has “identified this as a critical need” and is working with Congress to make this possible in the future.

Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign declined to comment on how she is handling police and fire personnel costs, as well as additional security measures provided by local governments.

All five localities that spoke to NBC News sent their bills to the Trump campaign. One of the largest unpaid bills totals more than half a million dollars.

El Paso, Texas, claims more than $569,200 in expenses from 2019, according to an invoice provided by city spokesperson Laura Cruz Acosta. The initial bill of more than $470,000 ballooned when the city charged the campaign a late fee for nonpayment.

In 2020, the El Paso City Council hired a law firm to represent the city's interests in collecting unpaid bills, Cruz Acosta said. Four years later, the Trump campaign has not paid.

The unpaid bills go back even further for Spokane, Washington, which wants the Trump campaign to pay for expenses incurred during a visit in May 2016, before Trump officially became the Republican presidential nominee. That bill totals more than $65,000, according to an invoice provided by city spokeswoman Erin Hut.

Hut said the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton still owe the city money from bills issued in May 2016. Sanders' campaign owes about $33,000 and Clinton's camp a little less than $3,000, she said.

Representatives who previously worked on the campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In Missoula County, Montana, government officials are charging nearly $13,000 for a 2018 Trump rally, according to an invoice provided by the county to NBC News. The bulk of the bill, nearly $12,000, is for police officers and 911 dispatchers, according to the bill. County spokeswoman Allison Franz confirmed the county did not have an agreement with the campaign on anticipated costs before the event.

In the swing state of Arizona, the city of Mesa is still waiting on the campaign to pay local law enforcement about $65,000 for Trump's October 2018 visit to Mesa-Gateway Airport, a confirmed a city spokesperson.

The bill concerns the Mesa Police Department's job of providing officers for crowd control and traffic control, as well as the department's rentals for barricades, towing and more, according to a letter from 2018 campaign by attorney Nancy Sorensen on behalf of the city.

Ana Pereira, a city spokesperson, told NBC News in a statement that when the city “became aware of the event and the conditions surrounding the venue, city officials took it upon themselves to implement all necessary measures to ensure public safety without first entering into an agreement. agreement with the campaign.”

However, she said “the City calculated the public safety costs incurred during the campaign event the President attended.”

She said that while the campaign is not legally obligated to cover these costs, “[w]We believe the Trump 2020 campaign should reimburse our city for taxpayer dollars, and we have billed the campaign accordingly. »

Similarly, Erie's bills were to cover overtime for police, fire and public works personnel, according to city spokesman Rob Lee.

Trump addressed the issue of overtime pay during his latest stop in Erie, but not in the way city officials might have hoped. Instead, he highlighted his proposal for no overtime taxes before offering his personal views on worker pay.

“I hated working overtime. I hated it. I would call on other people,” Trump said. “I shouldn't say this, but I would bring other people in. I wouldn't pay.”

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