Airplanes continue to be a hot topic in the state capitol and MoDOT is beginning to feel the heat from the public’s outrage at their misuse of gas tax revenue to support their extravagance.
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by State Rep. David Klindt (3rd District, R-Bethany) — Airplanes continue to be a hot topic in the state capitol and MoDOT is beginning to feel the heat from the public’s outrage at their misuse of gas tax revenue to support their extravagance. And here is additional information which you are entitled to know.
Since the last report, we have obtained copies of the flight logs from MoDOT for their three planes. After reviewing this two-inch stack of documents, we have learned that MoDOT spent $206,854 in 1998 to operate their planes. This is down from the $314,823 they spent in 1997.
The King Air C90 plane is a six to eight passenger plane and is MoDOT’s most expensive plane to operate at $482 per hour. MoDOT’s justification for this plane is that they use it to take aerial photos of highway corridors. When questioned about why they use the most expensive of their
three planes for this purpose, their answer was because this is the plane with camera mounts. However, after reviewing their flight logs it quickly becomes obvious that MoDOT rarely uses the King Air for aerial photos. In fact, in all of 1998 and so far in 1999 they have conducted 16 flights in the King Air for the purpose of aerial photos. Several of these flights appear to be for Department of Natural Resources purposes.
Another common use for the King Air and the Navajo Chieftain, which is also a six to eight passenger plane, is for MoDOT to shuttle former Director Joe Mickes from Jefferson City to St. Louis or Kansas City so he could catch a commercial flight. When Mr. Mickes returned from his trip, a MoDOT plane would pick him up from the airport and shuttle him back to Jefferson City. Apparently, this saved Mr. Mickes some time and it certainly spared him from driving back and forth on I-70. A few other MoDOT officials have been treated to this luxury also. These 19 flights cost over $8,000.
The volunteer Highway and Transportation Commissioners are also frequent flyers. The Commission meets monthly. From March 1998 through March 1999, MoDOT has spent over $69,000 on 92 flights to shuttle commissioners back and forth to these meetings. They send both the King Air and the Chieftain out all over the state to pick up and/or take home the commissioners. Frequently, only one commissioner will be on the plane.
MoDOT also flew over 200 flights this past year to transport various employees to meetings, awards ceremonies, highway opening and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, retirement functions, and funerals.
In response to public outrage as a result of the scrutiny of MoDOT’s flying habits, the new director of MoDOT, Henry Hungerbeeler, sent a staff person to the capitol to see what could be done to silence legislators and stop any further reports. Although MoDOT Commissioners and employees have acknowledged that the reports are accurate and factual, they simply don’t want the information made public.
This kind of arrogant attitude that MoDOT is accountable to no one has no place in state government, particularly when the subject is the expenditure of tax dollars. It is exactly this attitude that led to MoDOT’s unilateral decision to scrap the 15-Year Plan and shift more funding from the rural areas to St. Louis and Kansas City.
It’s time for taxpayers to teach MoDOT who’s the boss.