Clinton’s Inaugural Tab Is $44 Million

WASHINGTON — The oath that Bill Clinton took to begin his second term as president was 35 words. His inauguration cost $44 million. Do the math. It comes out to well over $1 million a word.

Of course, for the $31 million in private contributions and another $12.7 million in taxpayer money, the republic--and particularly the approximately quarter-million members of the republic who took part--got something else: the majesty of democracy. A parade. And 814 portable toilets.

Spending on inaugurations is sensitive stuff. No presidents want to look extravagant. Nor, however, do they want to slight supporters, leave any disappointed or squander an opportunity to soak up the nation’s hard-earned and fickle attention.

None would want it said that the inaugural celebration was anything less than dignified. Dignity and celebration come in many forms. On Monday, they came in the form of bands and other marchers from every state tromping down Pennsylvania Avenue even after sunset and then a 14-ball presidential dance ticket scheduled to keep Clinton on the go until 4 a.m.

Such dignity doesn’t come cheap. Nor do superstars.

Whoopi Goldberg, whose schedule called for appearances Sunday afternoon at a public celebration on the National Mall and in the evening at an inaugural gala performance at a suburban sports arena, could not leave New York City until Sunday morning because of commitments as she prepares for her role in the Broadway show “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

So she was given a limousine ride for the 230-mile trip. The presidential inaugural committee paid the costs. Goldberg, according to news agency accounts, wrote out a separate check to cover the cost of a State Police escort through Delaware.

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Such are the details of inaugurating a president--or at least of celebrating the inauguration.

The deed has been done cheaper. The bill for the inaugural ceremony that installed Frankin Pierce as president in 1853 came to $322. That included the pay for 16 extra police officers.

As for providing a breakdown on the individual expenses this year, the inaugural committee is keeping its counsel. It promises to make public how it has spent its money at some point.

“The appropriate way to do this would be to release a complete package of financial figures all at once, so it can be considered in context,” said David Seldin, the committee spokesman.

Providing individual costs--say, of cellular telephones, or automobile rentals, or tents, or heaters, or parade cleanup (lots of horses, you know)--in a piecemeal fashion is “not a way of producing information that is useful or accurate to anyone,” Seldin said.

Four years ago, Clinton’s inauguration cost $1 million or $2 million more. But corporate contributions and ticket sales produced a $9-million surplus, which was turned over to this year’s production.

The nearly $1-million cost of staging this year’s swearing-in ceremony itself, a figure that includes $430,000 for construction of a massive wooden structure on the West steps of the Capitol, came out of public funds.

The greatest costs went to mount a weekend-long festival on the National Mall. It gobbled up still-untold millions of dollars.

Times researcher D’Jamila Salem-Fitzgerald contributed to this story.