War Erupts over MJ's Memorial Cost

16. LA SHOULD FOOT THE BILL $10000000000000000000000000000000000%

Posted at 7:27PM on Jul 9th 2009 by sisterdearest09

17. let's not forget:
The Emergency Management Department spent nearly $49,000 on 3,500 boxed lunches from Jensen's Finest Foods in Wrightwood, according to the LA Times.

Posted at 7:27PM on Jul 9th 2009 by Karla

18. mj pay millions of dollar tax before his death...

Posted at 7:33PM on Jul 9th 2009 by haajara

19. IF the city didn't want to pay for it they should have said no we can't insure the security of the event. Hince the city fits the bill for the memorial.

Family can't and shouldn't pay for the memorial because the fans wanted it. It was for the fans an thats that.

Posted at 7:28PM on Jul 9th 2009 by euphoria

20. The Jackson family should be paying for all of this crap..

Posted at 7:37PM on Jul 9th 2009 by tj

21.
Don't forget all the extra revenue and sales tax for LA generated from all those expenses and all the extra visitors from out of town. Hotel rooms, food, shopping ...etc. all bring extra funds into the city.

Posted at 7:30PM on Jul 9th 2009 by Lynn317

22. Um....at the beginning of the year, us taxpayers were forced to give the government 800 Billions dollars! How dare they ask for more. Pay it California and get over it.

Posted at 7:31PM on Jul 9th 2009 by Joseph

23. Classic!
Why am I the only one asking-who set up the memorial?
Should they not pay the bill?!
Why did the networks not pay their share?!- The networks could easily foot the bill!

Priceless!

Posted at 7:31PM on Jul 9th 2009 by What The Hell!

24. For those of you outside of LA... ZINE is the guy who wanted to pass laws PROTECTING stars from the papparazzi.

He's an attention lover. In LA he does anything that will garner him attention.

He waited unitl Monday before he made public comments about the costs of this deal. That would be after Rep. King of NY got mostly positive attention for his Jackson comments.

But he's also very good friends with the mayor, and AEG- particularly Leiweke- bailed out the mayor on the lakers parade by sourcing the donations. So there might be something EXTRA igniting this fire.

At the end, Zine is a blow hard and very few people take him seriously, which was evidenced by his re-election with around 60% of the vote when virtually unopposed.
He cares a lot about his brand. He gives out an award every Sept. named after himself- Z AWARDS- and does other similar things to enhance his brand and name recognition.

Posted at 10:09PM on Jul 9th 2009 by trojanvic

25. I think Mayor Tony and his concubine should pay the full amount.

Posted at 7:33PM on Jul 9th 2009 by Rochelle

26. L.A. STFU and foot the bill! We pay taxes to cover things like this. It's not our fault you eff'ed up and did not budget properly. It's insulting that L.A. is asking for money! How distasteful! And if anyone should be fronting money for this, really, it should be corporations like TMZ and CNN who are banking so much money off of his memorial!

Posted at 7:37PM on Jul 9th 2009 by eh

27. Actually, why isnt the family responsible? Isnt that what the rest of have to do? When my husband passed away, I PAID THE BILL! This is one strange family. You dont plan an even like that and expect the city to pick up the tab. they should have had Michael cremated or something. Then they play hide and seek with the body and after everyone spends all their money to see him or try to see him, the family totally disreguards the fans. The more I hear about the Jacksons, the more I understand why he was the way he was. Sad!

Posted at 7:39PM on Jul 9th 2009 by sad fan

28. I GUESS ALL YOU PEOPLE THAT THINK THE LA TAXPAYERS SHOULD FOOT THE BILL FOR THAT FUNERAL ALSO BELIEVE THAT THE SEATTLE TAX PAYERS SHOULD FOOT THE BILL FOR BILL GATES' FUNERAL WHEN HE DIES.

THE ARGUMENT THAT MICHAEL JACKSON "CONTRIBUTED MORE TO THE COMMUNITY/COUNTRY THAN ANY OTHER PERSON" AND HAS PAID MORE TAXES THAN ANY OTHER PERSON IN LA IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. IN CASE YOU AREN'T AWARE, MR. GATES' NET WORTH FAR EXCEEDS THAT OF ALL THE JACKSON'S COMBINED, EVEN AT THEIR PEAK. MR. GATES' INCOME FAR EXCEEDS THE JACKSON'S INCOME COMBINED, EVEN AT THEIR PEAK. MR. GATES' TAX LIABILITY FAR EXCEEDS THE JACKSON'S TAX LIABILITY, EVEN AT THEIR PEAK. IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT A CONTRIBUTION TO MAN, THE CONTRIBUTION MR. GATES HAS GIVEN THIS EARTH FAR EXCEEDS ANYTHING THE ENTIRE JACKSON FAMILY HAS DONE. THE JACKSON FAMILY SHOULD FOOT THE ENTIRE BILL FOR THAT FUNERAL. JUST LIKE THE REST OF US HAVE TO DO WHEN WE BURY ONE OF OUR FAMILY MEMBERS. ALL OF YOU THAT THINK ANYONE OTHER THAN THE JACKSON FAMILY SHOULD FOOT THE BILL, WHEN ARE YOU SENDING IN YOUR CHECK?

Posted at 7:39PM on Jul 9th 2009 by SYLVI212

29. This is a false question. The costs of the memorial were covered by private funds. What the city is really asking is for money to cover the extra public security costs it had to incur because of the memorial. EG is not responsible and the Jackson family is not responsible for the security of the citizens and visitors of the city of LA. The city is. Michael Jackson happened to live in the state of California, he died, many people wanted to say their goodbyes. Plus, would imagine MJ paid more than his fare share of tax dollars during his life.

Posted at 7:45PM on Jul 9th 2009 by George, K

30. AEG, they are going to make a sh**load of money off of Michael and of course the Jackson family should pay. I don't believe the taxpayers would pay for my memorial.

Posted at 7:45PM on Jul 9th 2009 by Pjhop