City of Erie sends Trump campaign $5,200 bill related to Saturday’s campaign rally

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has received another bill from Erie Mayor Joe Schember’s administration.

City officials on Friday sent the Trump campaign an invoice requesting a $5,200 reimbursement for taxpayer-funded, employee related costs incurred by the city as a result of Trump’s Saturday rally at Erie Insurance Arena.

Schember told the Erie Times-News on July 24 that his administration would pursue reimbursement from the Trump campaign in advance of Saturday's rally, despite the fact that Trump’s campaign committee did not pay the city’s request for a $35,129 reimbursement related to Trump’s October 10, 2018 Make America Great Again rally, which also took place at Erie Insurance Arena.

Previous coverage: City will again seek reimbursement from Trump campaign for rally

Trump was roughly halfway through his first term as president when he visited Erie for that rally, ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Lamis said on Monday that the city’s repayment request is “much less this time due to the fact that there are much greater security needs for a sitting president than there are for a former president.”

The city has yet to receive any payment from the Trump campaign related to either of the rallies, Lamis said Monday.

How many Erie police officers worked the Trump rally?

Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny said about 12 Erie police officers handled rally-related security duties on Saturday, compared to 96 city officers who worked in various capacities during the October 2018 rally, when Trump was still in office.

"There is a huge difference between security for a sitting president and security for a candidate," Spizarny said.

Saturday's rally: In Erie speech, Trump airs grievances about criminal probes, Biden policies and DeSantis

Nearly all of the costs the city is seeking to recover following Saturday’s rally are related to overtime pay for city workers assigned to cover the event, including police officers, Lamis said.

That was also the case in 2018.

Erie Insurance Arena ushers estimated Saturday’s rally attendance at around 4,500. A capacity audience estimated at 9,000 attended Trump’s 2018 rally at the arena, with up to another 3,000 people watching the rally on a video screen outside, Erie Bureau of Fire officials estimated at that time.

Trump’s campaign paid $25,000 to rent the arena on Saturday.

Schember said in a previous interview that Trump’s campaign should easily be able to repay the city, since Federal Election Commission filings show that currently, DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT 2024, INC. has roughly $22.5 million on hand.

Trump’s campaign had about $35.4 million on hand when he visited Erie in 2018, FEC filing show.

Since Trump was first elected in 2016, cities across the country have incurred significant costs when hosting Trump rallies, most of them related to public safety and security.

Some cities have received repayments, while dozens have not been reimbursed.

Trump supporters and some public officials throughout the country have argued that cities have a responsibility to provide the necessary security for such events and that politicians are rarely asked to reimburse municipalities for security-related expenses related to their visits.

Some officials have also said that Trump’s rallies can bring a positive economic impact to municipalities that host them.

Various news outlets, however, have reported that Trump rallies often cost municipalities much more than rallies held by other candidates, and the expenses are unbudgeted.

Presidential campaigns are not required to pay such bills.

More: Trump addresses immigration, attacks Biden and calls criminal probes 'election interference'

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Trump gets another rally-related bill from Erie. This time for $5,200