The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs recently approved the travel of two Waterloo, IA city employees to attend a conference on Haitian Art in Paris France. The conference was attended by 14 people and 5 of them were from Waterloo. The two city employees were not required to take vacation time and were being paid their full salaries while the state paid for them to travel to Paris.

This can only mean that Cultural Affairs is allowing other cities to use grant money to take similar trips. With many more important issues facing Iowans today such as adequate funding for education, healthcare, infrastructure…we call on the Department of Cultural Affairs to stop spending our tax dollars for luxurious trips for public employees!