Seven months after it was called out in a critical legislative audit for questionable spending of public dollars, the Utah Restaurant Association is back asking state lawmakers for more than $400,000 in appropriations.
The money is to run ProStart, a culinary education program for high school students looking for careers in the food-service industry. While the audit was fairly damning, its presentation to legislative leaders was limited to just two minutes and was overshadowed by separate discussions about the troubled UPSTART program and its problems delivering technology and services to needy prekindergarten students.
Not disclosed in the presentation was how the restaurant association has in the past tried to get taxpayer funds to reimburse it for Disneyland resort tickets, or how it did use public funds to pick up beer tabs, or cover a prime rib dinner costing more than $1,000 for a party of nine.