Estimated invoices for political rallies held in Erie expected to exceed six-figures

The City of Erie is still coming up with a dollar amount for both Trump and Harris' visits over these past few weeks. Combined, debt is expected to amount to an over six-digit figure.

Although Erie plays a pivotal role in the presidential election, that significance comes at a cost.

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The City of Erie has to plan meticulously and get police prepared to put in hours of overtime.

The city's finance department then puts together a bill and sends an invoice to the campaign that was in town.

"We have overtime for police and that's probably because of these types of events that happen. To estimate those has been pretty hard recently here. So far, we've been able to pay everything within the budget and we'll hopefully continue to be able to do that," said City of Erie Mayor Joe Schember.

Most recently, Mayor Schember said the city just sent out a bill to Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for his rally at the start of September in Liberty Park, which totals more than $40,800.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to be billed similarly to her running mate, with the fee expected to be somewhere around $40,000.

"We did have about 130 police officers involved with it. There was a lot that they had to control. She flew into Erie, I met her at the airport and then they made a number of stops," said Mayor Schember.

While those invoices are fresh, former President Donald Trump still has two visits he hasn't paid for dating back to 2018.

"He has not paid for either of those and they total about $42,600 for those two events," said Schember. "We're going to do our best to collect on each one."

Now, a third bill for Trump's visit at the end of September is on the way.

The city said no bill will be sent for Republican v-p nominee j-d Vance's visit at Team Hardinger.

In total, the city has a more than $4 million budget for overtime pay, and about $1.7 million is dedicated to police.

Any unpaid bills will continue to fall on the city and by extension, taxpayers.

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"I certainly wish Donald Trump would send us the money he owes us from the last few visits," said Mayor Schember.

Mayor Schember said they'll have a better idea of what they'll be billing both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris soon.

JET 24/FOX 66 will notify you what that bill looks like when it's announced.