The California economy is in meltdown. So why do taxpayers have to pay for Michael Jackson's funeral? An expensive live event for a dead superstar.

The Los Angeles Times reports that inquiries are under way into how the city ended up paying $1.4 million for the funeral. That includes 3500 boxed lunches from Jensen's Finest Foods in Wrightwood, in San Bernardino County when people could have got something a lot cheaper at Subway. While there are claims hotels were full, it still doesn't make sense that taxpayers have to foot the bill.

Even more disgusting is the City of Los Angeles setting up a link asking citizens to help defray the costs of the funeral. Let's get this straight - some hotels and some merchants cleaned up big time from the event. Now ordinary people are being asked to dip into their pockets and pay the costs.

As the Mayo PR blog says, it's appalling when you consider that the City of Los Angeles is $500 million in the red and sending its employees home early on Fridays.

To me, that says something about the priorities of American leaders. And it's not pretty.