New Bloomfield, Pa. - State lawmakers are offering 2009 calendars to constituents for free. Are they harmless freebies, or are politicians getting a campaign bang from your buck?

New Bloomfield, Perry County is proud to call itself conservative. So is its state representative, Mark Keller. And like most conservatives, Keller says government spends too much and needs to cut back.

"I think everything should be on the table as far as cuts are concerned," said Keller. "Everything."

Sitting on a table in Keller's district office are calendars - free for constituents. Keller says they love the calendars.

"They do use them," he said. "I see them in people's homes. It's not like its thrown in the corner somewhere."

But Matt Brouillette of the Commonwealth Foundation estimates that lawmakers giving away free calendars costs you nearly $400,000 a year. And, he says, it's a form of campaigning.

"Usually, if a business is providing you a giveaway, usually the reason is they want to sell you something," said Brouillette. "Well, in the same way, lawmakers are trying to sell you on why you need to re-elect them every two years."

James Killinger is a proud Perry County resident. He calls the calendars pretty - and pretty pricey.

"I mean, it's a beautiful calendar, but any calendar will tell you the date and not cost you $400,000," he said.

That $400,000 is less than a drop in a $28 billion budget. But in touch financial times, perhaps the calendar's days are numbered.

Mark Kellar does appear to be a fiscal conservative. For instance, he doesn't use all the money allocated for his district offices and returns it to the state. But abc27 chose him because he sent us a press release trumpeting the fact that he had calendars for constituents.