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DEL.ICIO.USBecause Delta isn’t always ready when they are
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Political columnist Bill Shipp says today’s he’s found an interesting $18 million set aside in the new state budget for the purchase of a new state airplane and helicopter.
This as S.B.290, calling for a smaller state air force, sits in the House.
Just yesterday, the Macon Telegraphed published an excellent piece on who uses state airplanes. It began thusly:
Shortly after the end of last year’s contentious legislative session, Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle all headed to St. Simons Island for a meeting.
They used state airplanes to fly from Atlanta to the coast for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors meeting. They all left on the same day, within two hours of each other. They took three separate planes.
The Telegraph found:
Other than a DOT photographer, Perdue logged the most flights of any state official….
Perdue, his wife or a member of his senior staff took 20 airplane flights during the six months examined. Perdue’s helicopter flights from January through the end of November added up to 41 and included a trip to Bibb County to help cut the ribbon on a new bank and a trip to Twiggs County for a distribution center ground-breaking ceremony.
Cagle and his staff ranked second, taking 11 airplane flights and 31 helicopter flights. On March 18, he and his family flew to Dublin, where Cagle delivered a speech, according to his office, which provided an itinerary to go with the basic flight records. Then they headed to to Savannah to appear in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.
On March 30, a helicopter left from a state patrol hangar in Kennesaw, landed close to the lieutenant governor’s home in Gainesville then took him and two others to the state Capitol. Cagle took a helicopter home that night, first stopping in Augusta to attend a retirement event for the school board superintendent there. The cost of the flights that day was about $535, according to state patrol records.
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