Governor spent $76,000 on day trips to Springfield
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich's practice of flying from Chicago to Springfield and back for daily budget negotiations is costing taxpayers more than $5,800 a day, for a total of roughly $76,000 and climbing.
An Associated Press analysis of state flight records shows Blagojevich made eight round trips on state airplanes from May 22 to June 7. He spent an average of less than five hours in Springfield each time, including travel time to and from the capital airport.
On a ninth trip, he stayed over two nights as lawmakers tried to meet their May 31 budget-approval deadline.
The cost of the travel was $52,540.
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Several of the flights came while Blagojevich aides were admonishing lawmakers for not spending enough time in the Capitol negotiating a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
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http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=343252I vote in Illinois and I voted for Blagojevic in the general election.
But, in all honesty, if the guy doesn't want to live in Springfield where the state capitol is, then he should resign his position as governor or he should have to pay his own airfare.
We wouldn't tolerate this kind of behavior from a republikkan and I don't think we should have to tolerate it from a Democrat either.