South Dakota Lawmakers Don't Report Travel Paid for by Special-Interest Groups

From the ArgusLeader.com comes this report on the lack of required reporting for South Dakota lawmakers' travel paid for by business or special-interest groups. South Dakota does not require lawmakers to report how much money pays for such travel or which corporations are involved.

South Dakota lawmakers have been debating whether to put more restrictions on taxpayer-funded out-of-state travel.

Gov. Kaine's schedule details his travels, sorta

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's office released a spreadsheet that details where Kaine was from Jan. 1 to July 18, The Roanoke Times reported. This is after his office had denied an FOI request from the GOP for this data. Although the schedule indicates that Kaine didn't travel farther than Washington, D.C., when the General Assembly was in session, the data doesn't distinguish between when travel was related to his position as governor and when it was related to his position as DNC chairman.

Wonder where Gov. Tim Kaine has been?

Republicans and media outlets have been asking that question for weeks, seeking details about Kaine’s schedule since he became chairman of the Democratic National Committee in January. The governor’s office on Tuesday released a spreadsheet that generally accounts for Kaine’s whereabouts every single day from Jan. 1 to July 18. Kaine’s office had previously denied a GOP Freedom of Information Act request for his travel details.

But Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran said the governor “has always responded to questions regarding his work and whereabouts and remains willing to respond to these inquiries.” She said the office will release similar details at the end of each month.

More here.

Sanford's travel records raise questions

Anderson Independent-Mail is questioning if Gov. Mark Sanford's trips (to China, Germany, Poland, London and Brazil) benefited South Caroline and why they were so over the top, considering that Sanford paints himself as a frugal man.

As evidenced by travel records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Gov. Mark Sanford wasn’t as tight with taxpayer dollars as one might have expected for the man who slept on a cot in his congressional office and spoke so forcefully against accepting federal stimulus money for our state.

During his first campaign for governor, in fact, one of Sanford’s campaign points was criticism of travel expenses for other state officials, according to The Associated Press.

One has to wonder if the question of expenses would have even been raised had there not been so much dismay over how much some of those travels have cost the state in other ways. And how much they have cost him personally.

More here.

La. governor's schedule still secret under new law

A Louisiana bill passed last week opens up some of the governor's documents previously exempted but still keeps most information under wraps, the AP reported. Sen. Robert Adley of Benton said the legislation doesn't improve access to the governor's records but takes the state "from sunshine to moonshine." The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Advocate of Baton Rouge editorialized against the bill which shields for six months some budget-related documents that were considered public record under the current law. The signed bill will allow some documents concerning the governor's travel to be public but will keep his schedule secret.

A bill that opens some but not all of the governor’s records to public scrutiny won final legislative passage in the Senate last week after weeks of debate and negotiations in which Gov. Bobby Jindal’s allies deflected efforts to make his schedule public or preserve his documents for the archives.

The bill, S.B. 278, will keep out of the public eye any governor’s office documents related to the “deliberative process” or intra-office communications among his top staffers. And it puts budgetary advice that state departments submit to the governor off-limits for six months.

Jindal pushed the bill as an alternative to others aimed at lifting a decades-old exemption the governor’s office has enjoyed from the state open-records law. The Senate voted 28-8 on June 24 to approve the bill that had already passed the House. The president of the Senate and the speaker of the House signed the measure June 25.

More here.

Legislature overturns ruling, keeps travel details secret

The Texas Legislature voted to overturn the ruling by the Third Court of Appeals that travel records for the governor's security detail should be released to newspapers, the Houston Chronicle reported. Sen. Jeff Wentworth said releasing the records could compromise security. Someone who wanted to harm a public official could find out how many bodyguards travel with Gov. Perry, where they stay and whether or not they travel in advance of the governor, he told the Chronicle. A costs summary for the security detail can, however, be disclosed.

The state House and Senate voted Sunday night to restrict access to travel vouchers for the security details that travel with the governor and other top elected officials, days after an appeals court ruled that the records should be turned over to Texas newspapers.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said the provision would overturn an appeals court ruling last week that said the records should be disclosed to newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, which sued to obtain the records.

The Senate had passed a bill to exempt the records from public disclosure, but Wentworth said the bill got “stuck in the House.” So lawmakers in both chambers voted, without opposition, to add the language to another public records bill.

More here.

Appeals court rules in favor of disclosing travel records

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled in favor of Hearst Newspapers and Cox Newspapers, which sued to get the travel records of Gov. Rick Perry's security detail, the AP reported. The Texas Department of Public Safety can now appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.

An appeals court has rejected attempts to keep the travel records of Gov. Rick Perry's security detail secret.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled Friday the Texas Department of Public Safety has failed to show that releasing the records would be an invasion of privacy and create an imminent threat of physical danger.

Hearst Newspapers and Cox Newspapers sued to get the records. DPS can appeal Friday's ruling to the Texas Supreme Court.

More here.

Records show Ill. governor is 'thrifty'

Illinois Gov Pat Quinn's travel records show he personally paid for most of his overseas trips (to visit the troops) and didn't accept a meal allowance when he was lieutenant governor, the AP reported.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's penny-pinching reputation was bolstered his first day in office when he flashed a cut-rate hotel's preferred customer card.

An Associated Press review of state travel records backs him up.

Quinn never accepted the $32 daily meal allowance for state travelers during six years as lieutenant governor. He often pays his own lodging, too.

More here.

FOI at work: Taxpayer money used to fund trips

While it may be common to question whether politicians really make taxpayer-funded conferences worthwhile, The Journal News uncovered that citizens of White Plains, N.Y., are also funding travel for an unpaid adviser.

An unpaid adviser to the Westchester County board isn't so unpaid - taxpayers were billed for his trips to destinations like Hawaii, Chicago, Kansas City and Scotland.

Herman Geist, an adviser to Board of Legislators Chairman William Ryan, is also equipped with a BlackBerry, bringing his total expenses to $13,270 over four years, according to records obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law.

That money is in addition to nearly $150,000 in travel, cell-phone and transportation costs incurred by the 17-member county board since 2003 - including $54,968 for legislators to attend various conferences and events.

More here.

Complaint filed after newspaper reveals governor may have used state aircraft for political advantage

Election season is prime time for data mining and political investigations.

After the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind., reported that Gov. Mitch Daniels' 113 trips in the past 19 months included appearances that seem political, his opponent's campaign asked the state Inspector General to investigate:

Democrat Jill Long Thompson's campaign filed a complaint with the state Inspector General's office Wednesday seeking a formal investigation of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' election-year use of state aircraft.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate's campaign also filed a public records request seeking Daniels' travel logs and the e-mails, phone records and time sheets of all state workers who may have helped plan his trips or traveled with him.

The request comes about a week after The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne reported that Daniels logged about 85 percent as many flights in state aircraft in the first seven months of this election year as he did all of last year.

More here.

More coverage on this issue:

• Daniels' rival asks record probe; The Journal Gazette (Ind.)
• Rival hits Daniels on travel; The Journal Gazette (Ind.)
• Daniels treads fine line in state travel; The Journal Gazette (Ind.)
  

Texas DPS Ordered to Release Protective Detail Info

The Texas Department of Public Safety must release to the public travel information about Gov. Rick Perry's protective detail, a state district judge ruled Friday.

Judge Scott Jenkins found no evidence that releasing the records would place Perry or anyone else in imminent danger.

Two news companies had sued DPS for access to the documents. They were requested last year under the Texas Public Information Act by reporters from the Austin American-Statesman as well as the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, both of owned by Hearst Newspapers LLC.

The newspapers reported the judge's decision online Friday.

"This is a very good day for public disclosure," said Matthew Baumgartner, an attorney for the newspapers' publishers. "If a basic accounting document can be restricted on security grounds, there's no limit to what can be withheld."

The requested documents contain travel expenses for the state troopers who accompany Perry and his family on trips, including trips that are not official state business.

In a hearing before Jenkins, DPS argued that releasing the information would compromise the safety of the governor, his family and others who travel with them because it could provide useful details to someone trying to do them harm.

More here.