Remember in 2013, when Rep. Scott Tipton voted to shut down our government? The move crippled his hometown of Cortez. Tourism came to a standstill, and restaurants and hotels suffered. In rural Colorado, we all suffered.

That wasn’t the case for Rep. Tipton. While the rest of us struggled at home, he continued to receive his salary in D.C.

In 2013, Tipton promised us he would forgo his pay while the government was shut down. He later reneged on that promise and collected his shutdown salary. That’s right – we the taxpayers footed the bill for Tipton when he wasn’t even working, and after he failed to do his job in the first place.

During the shutdown, Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner donated their shutdown salaries to charity, proving that this is not a party-line issue. The issue is Rep. Tipton pocketing his salary in D.C. while his constituents contend with financial hardship at home.

Rep. Tipton, so many of your voters have problems balancing their own checkbooks. We are working hard just to make ends meet. It is unfair that we struggled during the shutdown while you enjoyed a vacation at our expense.

Please give your shutdown salary back to your communities. Let your constituents know via a public press announcement which charity will be the recipient of your shutdown pay. We deserve to know.

They are our tax dollars after all.

Lisa Thompson

Ignacio