Mayor Solicits Jackson Funeral Donations

(AP)  The city of Los Angeles has set up a Web site to allow Michael Jackson fans to help the city pay for his Staples Center memorial service.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa office spokesman Matt Szabo says the site launched Tuesday morning is linked to a PayPal account where donors can help defray the ceremony's cost with tax deductible credit-card contributions. Szabo estimates the service will cost $1.5 million to $4 million.

The Web page reads: "Help the City of Angels provide the extraordinary public safety resources required to give Michael the safe, orderly and respectful memorial he deserves."

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[Madavigne]

amazing! the economy is bad enough, families are homeless and jobless but MJ's 4 million dollar funeral is being put on the tax payers and "cash-strapped" city of L.A. i agree with the previous posters it shold be the responsibilty of the family to pay for his funeral expenses, not the public or the city.

[govtguy]

This is truly a case of the tail wagging the dog! It's a sad day when a city official (i.e. Mayor), has to beg for money to cover city and safety services for anyone, regardless of "star value" or not. The Jackson family should foot the entire bill and reimburse the city without negotiation. To shut down main artery freeways and to block off city blocks so that the deceased can be "viewed" by fans at a sports coliseum is the pinnacle of idolatry. He's dead, plant him, pay the bills, and move on already. It's only going to get worse with all the buzzards flocking and circling.

[ramos1129]

I would like to contribute but somehow just cannot do it.