Pennsylvania taxpayers spent $357K to fly governors on state plane since 2010 - Watchdog.org
Tom Wolf likes to get out and about, but he doesn’t always drive the Jeep that has given him a folksy appeal during his campaign and first year in office. Pennsylvania is a large state — it’s more than 283 miles long and up to 160 miles wide — so sometimes Wolf trades in his used 2006 Jeep Wrangler Golden Eagle for the state airplane, a Beechcraft twin-engine King Air. Compared to driving, the flights can be pricey — costing taxpayers about a grand per hour — but Wolf, a Democrat, so far isn’t exactly a frequent flier compared to other recent governors. Tom Corbett , used the plane 48 times in 2014 and 27 times in 2013, after two modest years of use. All told, the past three governors’ use of the state plane has cost $357,331 since 2010. Wolf has placed an emphasis on visiting constituents around the state, said his press secretary, Jeffrey Sheridan. The governor has used the plane to travel to just a handful of the many stops on his statewide Schools That Teach and Jobs That Pay tours, both connected to the budget proposal he made in March. Some of those trips haven’t been popular with Republicans in the General Assembly — especially appearances Wolf has used to tout his stance in the state’s budget standoff. Some lawmakers have criticized Wolf’s budget campaign, but have hosted their own public events about the budget impasse, too. Source: watchdog.org
