Report- MoDOT spends nearly $500,000 on flights

ST. LOUIS -- Flying Missouri highway commissioners and other Department of Transportation employees around the state over the past 21 months has cost taxpayers more than $475,000, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.

The flights have been taken since state Auditor Claire McCaskill criticized the department for using planes inefficiently and for not having a written policy. The department's own internal audit found no problems but adopted a written policy that said planes should be used "with great discretion and forethought."

The newspaper reported that commissioners flew on state airplanes 187 times from July 2003 to last month. Highway officials made 229 flights at a cost of more than $250,000 in 2002. Of that amount, $90,000 was spent on flights for the commissioners.

Commissioner Duane Michie of Hayti has taken a state airplane on commission business 57 times since July 2003, more than the other five commissioners. Hayti is a five-hour drive from Jefferson City, where commission meetings are typically held, and Michie said he often needs to fly.

Jim Anderson, a commissioner from Springfield, flew alone 23 times, more times solo than any other commissioner, and 39 times overall.

Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, was critical of the commission.

"The commission is not answerable to the people of Missouri," Bartle said. "It's not politically accountable. You have this autonomous commission that's allegedly free from politics, but it's also, unfortunately, free from public accountability."

But Anderson said flying around the state for the commission is the "cost of doing business, and a minor cost considering the department's $2 billion budget.

Highway commissioners receive 34.5 cents for every mile they drive in their personal vehicle for commission business. At that rate, Michie's 620-mile round-trip drive from Hayti to Jefferson City would cost $213.90.

His one-way flights by himself cost the state from $1,210 to $2,047.50, according to Office of Administration records. His typical flights take about two hours.

Transportation Director Pete Rahn has used a state plane 48 times since joining the department in September. He has attended 238 meetings in 84 cities around the state. He couldn't cover that much ground without an airplane, he said.

Commissioners, who receive no salary, have obligations at their paying jobs, Rahn said. Michie works full time as the chairman of the board for First State Bank & Trust Co. Inc. in Caruthersville, near Hayti.

"They're all businesspeople," Rayn said. "This is a contribution, a public service. So there's valuable time that we take from them out of their businesses.

"The logic behind flying them is, in my mind, pretty strong," he said.