After picking apart Donald Drumpf and his presidential campaign on last Sunday’s episode, John Oliver used last night’s Last Week Tonight to discuss special districts and highlight the many, very real problems about them. However, for this segment, he couldn’t do it alone, which is why near the end of it, he enlists the help of several “local school kids” as they make a video together about “what’s so special about special districts.”
As the kids explain in the video below, special districts are “smaller governments that handle one specific service, like fight fire or provide water.” But that’s not always the case, as Oliver points out. Some special districts have used taxpayer money on everything from flat screen TVs to pornography to fireworks.
And while not all special districts are corrupt, which Oliver makes clear when he provides footage of two dedicated and conscientious employees in Litchfield, New Hampshire, the main problem with them is that it’s nearly impossible to get rid of them. Even when it’s discovered that certain special districts are not being used for their main purposes, they very well may continue to exist simply because “there is not a process for them to be dissolved.”
“There’s no one to break them up,” Oliver says. “They’re like Styrofoam packing peanuts, or the enduring friendship of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. They’ll be with us until the end of time.”
Check out Last Week Tonight‘s video below for more information on special districts and to see a bunch of kids dressed up like John Oliver:
[Photo via YouTube]
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