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John Patterson, my Statehouse office mate, had a good piece this week on a recent Auditor General’s report.
One of the budgetary gimmicks implemented by the Blagojevich administration is using “charge-backs” to state agencies. CMS essentially bills agencies for services they receive from the centralized bureaucracy. It’s all the same money, of course, but it allows the governor’s budget office to essentially free up cash for other programs and projects.
But when it comes to IDOT providing air service to the governor’s office itself, well, that’s another story.
That’s the backdrop to Wednesday’s state audit that found the Illinois Department of Transportation charges state officials and employees no where near enough to cover the actual cost of having, flying and maintaining state airplanes and helicopters. Who makes up the rest? Taxpayers.
State auditors found that the current rate of 41 cents per mile, which has been the rate since 1981, would need to increase to $1.85 to break even. […]
Between the 2003 and 2006 budget years, the governor’s office was billed $459,540 for use of state aircraft, easily exceeding the second biggest user – the Illinois House at $169,635.
Using Illinois Auditor General William Holland’s findings, Blagojevich’s office should have been billed more than $2 million if the transportation department wanted to cover its costs. That means taxpayers subsidized Blagojevich’s airfare to the tune of $1.6 million those years.
But, the governor’s office maintains that chargebacks in this case would be unwarranted, perhaps because that would increase the office’s operating budget.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 8:09 am
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same auditor general for ten years and now he questions the planes. Give us a break this guy is to bias. And i will gurantee you he has used the plane himself check it out.
Comment by huh Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 8:26 am
Wow, who would have thought of this — government as a self pertuating, money recycling machine?
And CMS has “saved” those agencies so much money that they can charge back to those agencies more than the agencies could have saved by not having CMS blindly nose into all their transactions?
Comment by vole Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 8:29 am
“huh,” the audit was ordered by the Legislative Audit Commission. I wonder which office you work for?
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 8:31 am
I think this issue is being over-played. I will agree that there is a value in accurate financial reporting. But it’s not correct to say that this practice has resulted in “taxpayer subsidies.” If proper accounting had been done (and I agree that proper accounting is a good thing), what would have been the result? The DOT would have spent $1.6 million less and the Governor’s Office would have spent $1.6 more. It’s all taxpayer money of one sort or the other. Again, I’m all for accurate reporting, but this doesn’t change the bottom line.
(Unless, of course, the governor’s trips were political trips paid by his campaign fund. If he got a cheap fare on those trips, then I would agree there are taxpayer subsidies here. But the article refers to the “governor’s office,” so I assume we’re talking about official state business here.)
Comment by blueinaredstate Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 8:42 am
The Illinois Tollway’s helicopter was bought and paid for. Plus it had it’s own hanger, helipad and underground jet fuel tanks. The hanger, by the way, was converted into more office space, once again ADDING more personel.
What black hole did the money from that sale fall into? Does this audit show the chargebacks that the Illinois Tollway has incurred since that sale? Seems it would have been cheaper to pay for the jet fuel and maintanance.
It’s a huge shell game paid for by taxpayers and patrons of the tollway.
Comment by The Doom Patrol Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 9:26 am
The bottom line is that this Governor has tried to move the capital to Chicago and a lot of these flights are Chicago-Springfield flights.So let’s do business is the capitol of Illinois[Springfield} and save money.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 9:29 am
Blue,
According to the audit, the governor was charged $48,114 over four years for “personal/political” use of state aircraft. The going rate for that kind of use is 75 cents per seat mile vs. the 41 cents for “official” use but still far short of the $1.85 auditors determined would cover the actual costs.
As for the “it’s all taxpayer money” argument, that’s essentially the argument the administration makes, although it runs counter to their “charge back” philosophy on just about everything else.
Here’s another way to look at the argument. If the planes are such a valuable service, then why charge at all? And if you’re going to charge, then why not charge full price? This administration raised all sorts of state fees arguing that it was merely adjusting them to more modern costs. Well, I do believe the price of jet fuel alone has increased a bit since 1981, the last time the plane rates were raised.
Given that state travel guidelines require travel by the most economical means available, it’s logical to think a large number of plane users would be steered to commercial flights or Amtrak, which would free up money in the budget to spend on other things, like lawmakers’ pet projects.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 9:33 am
No, Downstate, let’s use videoconferencing. This is the 21st century.
All this departments billing other departments stuff is way too complicated for the average taxpayer to understand or even care about.
The issue is, why do these folks have to travel so much at all. Most of them already know each other, so they don’t need the in-person contact many believe is crucial to, say, a business deal.
Blago is all show and appearances. Apparently, the people he hires in upper level jobs are too. They travel because it makes them feel important. They get special deals in hotels, get to eat out a lot. Tacky, tacky.
Comment by Cassandra Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 9:37 am
Lets not even claim there are political reasons for doing this. It looks like there is, but lets forget this for a second and look at why this is really bad.
Speaking as an auditor, you can’t allow this. It is either all one way, or another. If you allow a case by case application of these rules, then you lose any accountability.
The Auditor General has no options here. It is his job to make sure our state meets basic accounting standards. He is like a guard rail. Blagojevich is driving like a drunk and hitting these guard rails, and blaming them for the damage. Thats freaking crazy.
How can we have a governor who disrespects basic accounting procedures? Did he flunk Accounting 101 too? The whole thing is so disrespectful to how we operate ANY state government, it is nauseating.
Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 9:38 am
Michelle–(1) I acknowledged in my post that if part of this mis-accounting involves personal or political use of the plane, then, yes, there’s an issue, and I would consider it taxpayer subsidy of a political campaign.
(2) My “it’s all taxpayer money” argument was referring to the contention that there is a “taxpayer subsidy.” My definition of taxpayer subsidy would be that taxpayers’ tax payments were spent on something that shouldn’t be paid with taxpayer funds. In this case, if the accounting procedure is the only concern–whose budget does the expenditure show up in–it really is all taxpayer’s money. And I acknowledged that appropriate accounting and reporting is a good thing. I was just objecting to the use of the term “taxpayer subsidy” which appears to be inaccurate in this case.
(3) Why charge at all or why not charge full price? That gets to the issue of accounting and reporting, not the question of whether this practice has resulted in more net taxes being spent than would otherwise be the case.
(4) I agree with your last point, although I hope the result would be other than you suggest. If the governor’s office and other agency staff had to spend more of their own budget on state plane travel rather than much of the cost being hidden in the bigger DOT budget, they might decide to take the train or drive or decide maybe that meeting really isn’t so important after all.
Comment by blueinaredstate Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 9:57 am
Rich you figure it out you’re probably monitoring my ip address anyway where am i coming from. You never seem to worry where the questions from the other side some from why worry about mine.
Comment by huh Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 10:10 am
Rich, I think someone may be missing the story here.
If IDOT charges an artificially low rate for travel by state officials, is it also charging that artificially low rate for reimbursement to the state when a non-state official travels (Governor’s family, campaign staff, etc.)on the state plane?
What about when a trip has a mixture of official and political business? Do the campaigns reimburse at the real cost or at the artificially low rate?
Comment by Old Elephant Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 10:22 am
This isn’t really an issue, except for the accounting types. The planes are flying whether they are used or not. So long as that is the case, then the most economical way to travel is by plane, not by train or car.
Having all these flights every day may be a waste of money, but so long as they are going state employees should be encouraged to use them more, not less.
Comment by GoodForBlago Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 11:17 am
Maybe we could move Blago…off budget???
Comment by Siyotanka Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 11:18 am
off budget?
Comment by definiton please Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 11:27 am
What about the time savings for these higher up executives. 10seats on the plane saving 3hrs travel time on the highway twice a day at an avergae of $125/hour 250 days a year. I think that comes to saving $1,875,00 in these guys time. I think i choose the plane. You cant just analyze the cost of something without looking at everything an not just a piece of the puzzle. And yes the Aug Gen is bias.
Comment by anon again Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 11:48 am
“No, Downstate, let’s use videoconferencing. This is the 21st century.”
I agree. The state should make better use of teleconferencing, and it should allow more of its workers to take advantage of telecommuting.
Let’s take the money from these planes and invest it in high-speed rail for Illinois.
Comment by Squideshi Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 11:55 am
I must be skeptical of even the $1.85 per mile number. If you total all the personnel, overhead, infrastructure, equipment and operating costs involved in keeping this fleet, moving or not, I would bet that the real cost adds up much more than $1.85 per mile. There is a lot of voodoo economics justifying a hell of a lot of state expenditures that if given the fine tooth comb would never make it in the real world. This is one of main reasons that it is so difficult to cut the size of state government — so many state jobs,expenditures, and programs are justified by phony accounting.
Comment by vole Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 12:07 pm
Since the state capitol is in Springfield, why not conduct the majority of the state’s business down here instead of Chicago - saving tons in transportation costs - including the billing of the state by the gov’s cronies who live in Chicago and work in Springfield - it’s the taxpayers who are paying them to drive back and forth and provide them with lodging, meals, state car, etc. let alone the planes to fly around in.
Comment by Sahims2 Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 12:18 pm
Rich - Your in the know.
Late yesterday an I.D.O.T. poster indicated I.D.O.T. Secretary Timothy Martin had left I.D.O.T. for a position in the private sector.
Is this true? If so, that’s pretty big news, why hasn’t there been a press release from I.D.O.T.?
Is his abrupt departure due to his legal woes?
Comment by Dark Kingdom Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 12:32 pm
The true issue should be the significant travel costs that have increased with this administration. Many managers (political hacks) have been hired that are permitted to state that there headquarters are in Chicago even though all or most their employees are based in Springfield. The taxpayers of Illinois are paying for their flights back and forth to Springfield, paying hotel and apartments bills. I have heard of one manager flying back and forth three times in one week. One trip was due to attending his son’s ball game. Should the tax payers of Illinois support such trips? Investigative reporters should be investigating such costs.
Comment by So Blue Democrat Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 12:35 pm
I think “Investigative Report(ers/ing) has become extinct in Illinois.
Comment by Citizen A Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 1:16 pm
I agree with soblue. Are these flights necessary? Do we perhaps need to give a director or consultant a “relocation fee” to move to Springfield in an attempt to be closer to the action? That would save tons of money when compared to several flights per week. I can’t see how an IDOT exec, for example, could be in Chicago when the Hanley Building on Dirksen is the main cog of the agency (at least in a logistical/practical manner).
Flights will never go away. The sad thing is that our legislature would never vote down a measure to decrease flights because the four leaders more than likely take advantage of available flights.
Comment by Team Sleep Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 1:24 pm
Guv’s office just released a terse announcement that Tim Martin is gone effective today, and Milt Sees is in. the release says nothing of Martin’s reason for leaving or where he’s going, but Sees praises Martin’s work.
Comment by District 69 Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 1:41 pm
I was at an event where the gov scheduled the appearance there to make a speech, just to make the reason for the state plane flight “official state business”, even though he spent most of his time that day in area fundraisers around the site of the speech. Then of course he got to fly back home in time to tuck the kids into bed and count up the birthday cards. It can’t be the only time he’s done this, if the audit is any indication.
There is good reason to have state planes and copters for fast transportation of Governor Biggles and various legislators and agency officials to various parts of the state. When the tornadoes hit Springfield, the plane was avaialable to whisk the governor there. The choppers are invaulable after floods, blizzards,a storms. The state flying fleet does a lot of unsung everyday work involving the regulation, inspection and monitoring of airports and runways statewide.
Even the shuttle service between Chicago and Springfield makes sense, because it is a dedicated run free from the all-too-common delays and service cancellations you’d get flying cheaper commercially, flying on a timetable that (theoretically at least) is most efficient for our legislators and officials to get the most work done in a day. And if the plane is going to fly, it might as well fly full both ways as much as possible. I think it only seats ten or so.
But you have to draw the line at abusing it for the campaign trail, or to get you to press events that are thinly-veiled campaign appearances on the state’s dime. Or to scare them into not billing you at all.
Comment by Coffee, tea, or audit? Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 1:55 pm
Think about the tax impact the state’s private airline has cost Chicago and Springfield. How many airlines such as Chicago Southern, Air Illinois etc. have gone under due to under utilization. If the state employees at all levels had been forced to use them the private sector would have thrived and the state wouldn’t have incurred the huge unnecessary expense. A true double loss for the taxpayers - once again.
Comment by Citizen A Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 1:55 pm
I wonder haow long it will be before Blago’s folks demand frequent flier miles - could really add up when you live in Chicag and “work” in Springfield.
Comment by Citizen A Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 2:00 pm
I’m sure Martin will say he needs to spend more time with his family. Funny how the bad news always gets admitted to, er, released, on a Friday afternoon?
So, what do you think did it? The traffic light observer hiring, the salt dome power-washing, the planting of hacks and no-work stooges against personnel regs, the funky contracting practices, links to Rezko? Maybe another Fitzmas is immenent?
So many choices!
Bill, maybe you can help us out on this one?
Comment by Gregor Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 2:01 pm
Was there any television coverage of Martin’s resignation? Was Blago present?
It is a Happy New Year after all!
Comment by District 1 Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 2:09 pm
Yes but i question dist 69 use of the term terse, that would have sounded like this we fired him before he totally wrecked the place and demoralized the staff any further and we also plan on replacing a couple of his pals, now that would be terse. My d friends tell me they are happier than the rs whats with this
Comment by CO Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 2:14 pm
Illnois Secretary of Transportation position is pretty high-ranking position to be throwing under the bus.
Where’s the media on this?
There’s way more to this resignation!
Comment by Best e-mail in four years Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 2:25 pm
The first duty on the first day at work for these guys is to write a letter of resignation and give it to the guv. He then puts a date on it months or years later and uses it as a get out of jail free card. There it is !!
Comment by Citizen A Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 2:34 pm
It is not necessary to have a government airline. Most of the use is to feed the egos of those with enough pull to use them. The another way to payoff your little buddies with a little ride to Chi town now and again for doing things as getting your bigger buddies on the payroll in big paying jobs.
Comment by i d Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 3:14 pm
This state plane thing is clearly George Ryan’s fault. He never kept the rates at market price and Rod has had much more pressing matters to reform over the first four years than silly little bookeeping issue like this.
AA (with tongue firmly in cheek)
Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 3:16 pm
huh - For somebody who is trying to elbow into somebody else’s nickname, you are coming off pretty stupid. The Auditor General is just doing his job and found unjustifiable wasted state resources.
Secondly, the possiblity that a member of the “B Team” would be able to use one of the IDOT aircraft to fly from Springfield to Chicago is slim and none. The only way would be if (s)he had to hand deliver something of critical importance.
Comment by Huh? Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 3:21 pm
It’s probably Ryan’s fault that Blago’s not in jail now because Ryan has consumed soooo much of Fitzgerald’s time, dontchaknow ? By the way where is Fitzgerald these days ? Has he been reappointed or perhaps called off the job so he doesn’t get any closer to Daley, GWB’s good friend ?
Comment by Citizen A Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 3:25 pm
Sorry Huh? i will now be dah if thats ok with you and your r friends, but my point we have had the same auditor general for over ten yrs and nothing has changed at aero why now? did he get bumped off or something by a member of the b team. and my understanding is thaa any state employee with his agency approval is able to use the plane is this not correct. And we need to clear this up there is not going to be another airport this is where they plan to build the new state capital and think of the money we can save on the plane and it is close to the speakers home
Comment by Dah Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 4:22 pm
The Auditor General missed the point. As indicated above $48,114 dollars were charged for “political/personal” trips @ $.75/mile. As the auditor noted this should have been $1.85 to break even. This means the low rate saved the Blagojevich campaign and or personel $70,567.20. Compound this with the fact that many of these trips are grey areas and I am sure they were saved even more. For example, a ground breaking for a new highway would probably not be considered a “political/personal” trip; but, it scores very big politacal points and garners votes. This rate has not been changed since 1981 by either party; because it would get into their pockets plain and simple.
The CMS charge backs are nothing more than a money laundering scheme. It is a way to take earmarked money and move it into the general revenue fund. If IDOT gets a vehichle serviced instead of paying the bill of the vendor it pays CMS an amount equal to the amount of the bill plus a markup for handling. This in effect moves gas tax money that is supposed to be dedicated for roads into the general fund to be spent as pleased.
Comment by anon Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 5:08 pm
Maybe if the guv just relocated to springfield, the state capital with the guv’s mansion, maybe he wouldn’t need to fly so much. Remember this when the next election comes up, first quesyion to the candidates, will you live in springfield?
Comment by Concerned Voter Friday, Jan 26, 07 @ 6:00 pm
While we talk about frequent flier miles and iffy reasons for using the state plane Tim Martin and IDOT and their contractors were walking off with the store.
Cost overruns on the Dan Ryan are close to half a BILLION dollars. Now, do we believe that the folks over at IDOT don’t know how to build roads
so they couldn’t calculate the costs any closer than that. People have been building roads for centuries. It’s not like building a new futuristic computer system.
Nope, gotta be some corruption here. And while Martin sails off to a lucrative job (probably with one of the contractors that took
IDOT for a very expensive ride–or did IDOT take us for a ride?) us gullible Illinois taxpayers once more get stuck with the bill.
Is there a transportation oversight committee in the state legislature. Maybe somebody ought to take a closer look at their campaign contributions too.
Comment by Cassandra Saturday, Jan 27, 07 @ 9:31 am