Gov's Plane Use Lower Than Predecessors'

February 20, 2006
The Capital Times
By Ryan J. Foley Associated Press

Gov. Jim Doyle has used state airplanes to travel far less than his predecessors during his first three years in office, records show.

Doyle, who during the 2002 campaign repeatedly criticized Gov. Scott McCallum's use of state planes, logged 28,900 miles in the year that ended June 30, 2005, according to records obtained by The Associated Press in an open records request.
That was slightly higher than Doyle's previous two years but less than the two Republicans who preceded him in the east wing, records show. McCallum flew almost twice as many miles in 2002, and Tommy Thompson traveled almost three times as much in 2000.

"I'm happy to see that's happening," Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, who has called for efficiencies in the state plane fleet, said of Doyle's reduced use.

The AP reviewed flight manifests that detail the destinations and travel party of all 270 trips that Doyle took using state planes during his three years in office.

Doyle wanted to limit plane use after criticizing McCallum on the issue, including McCallum's trip to take his son to a soccer tournament in Colorado, spokesman Dan Leistikow said.

"The governor has seen a massive reduction in the use of the state plane compared to his predecessors," he said. "He wanted to make sure the plane is being used responsibly."

Thompson and McCallum have defended their frequent flying.
"I viewed a large part of the job to represent people throughout the state," McCallum said. "It wasn't to be captive of what was going on inside the Capitol."

Leistikow said Doyle visits all parts of the state, but he has "spent a lot more time in the car and less time in the air."

Doyle, a Democrat, blasted McCallum four years ago for taking political and personal trips without reimbursing the state and for flying 40 miles to Janesville when he could have driven almost as easily.

The records show Doyle did make short flights from Madison to Lake Geneva, 56 miles, and to Platteville, 73 miles, but Leistikow dismissed any comparison to McCallum's 2001 flight to Janesville. He said each of those destinations take more than an hour to reach from Madison compared to about 45 minutes to Janesville.

The AP review also found:

Doyle has rarely used state planes to fly outside of Wisconsin. The few trips include one to Des Moines, Iowa, for a national governors conference, one to St. Louis to testify in front of the Pentagon's base closing commission and another to Cincinnati for the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association conference.

In all, the governor's flights cost the state $164,000 in the year that ended June 30, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Taxpayers pay for Doyle's flights as long as they are for official business.

Doyle's campaign has reimbursed the state $5,062 for the political portions of three trips in 2004, invoices show. The payments covered the costs of flights associated with attending campaign fundraisers, Doyle campaign spokeswoman Melanie Fonder said.

The campaign must reimburse the state for political flights under a formula set by the Department of Administration. The department updated the rate last fall after the state Ethics Board inquired, records show.

But Doyle much more often flies commercial for campaign trips, such as a fundraising trip to California last fall, Fonder said.

Most of Doyle's state trips were on the King Air, a two-engine aircraft that can seat a maximum of nine people. The plane is the flagship of the state fleet, which has been reduced to 19 planes after lawmakers ordered the state to put the planes up for sale in 2002.

Doyle has touted the effort as a cost-saving move, noting eight planes have been sold during his tenure. "Believe me, state government doesn't need its own airline," he said in his State of the State speech in January.

Neither of the two Republicans running for the party's nomination to face Doyle in the fall have criticized Doyle on planes.

Still, the state Republican Party has requested some of the records already reviewed by AP and will see "if anything doesn't smell right," spokesman Bob Delaporte said. He said Doyle invited the scrutiny by making planes an issue in the previous election.

The state GOP in 2002 accused Doyle, then the state attorney general, of using a state plane to pick up a $1,000 check from a donor in Superior. But the Ethics Board ruled that Doyle's meeting with the then-president of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents was official business.

The Ethics Board required McCallum to pay back the state $13,000 for the Colorado trip.