WESTERN COLOMBIA – The Republican Party leader in the state Senate wants to sell two planes used by South Carolina officials to end what he calls abuse of taxpayers’ money.
Senate majority leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, announced on March 5 his proposal to sell the 1983 King Air C90 twin-engine and the 1990 King Air 350, which are used most often by the governor, but also for recruiting companies.
This week, for example, Governor Henry McMaster flew to Myrtle Beach and Darlington to visit the COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics.
But the Republican governor said he was willing to think about getting rid of them. He asked the state Administration Department to analyze the costs and benefits of maintaining and selling not only the two state planes, but also those belonging to public colleges, updating a 2014 study, said spokesman Brian Symmes.
Both the University of South Carolina and Clemson have two planes.
State officials and legislators can use state planes at no charge to them on a first-come, first-served basis, provided that travel is an official matter. In addition to McMaster, others recently on board include state treasurer Curtis Loftis, state port authority president Jim Newsome and University of South Carolina president Bob Caslen. January travel alone costs taxpayers $ 85,000.
They were among the 27 times that the planes were used between January 1, 2020 and February 1 of this year, according to flight records maintained by the state Aeronautics Commission.
Massey says it is an unnecessary privilege for politicians and that the best way to end abuses is to cut off their access altogether.
“My goal is to protect taxpayers’ money,” said the Edgefield Republican. “We see that lawmakers have been using the state plane for their personal tours more recently. If there is a better way to do this than to sell the planes, I’m willing to listen. But I need to be persuaded. “
Massey pointed to a March 4 report in The State newspaper that said that state minority leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, flew the planes six times with his then girlfriend, Megan Pinckney, since 2013. The couple married in December .
But he is far from the only lawmaker to use airplanes. And other politicians have been criticized in the past.
In 2013, Democrats accused the then Gov. Nikki Haley of misuse the state planes, taking her cameraman paid for by the campaign with her on flights through South Carolina the previous year. She rejected the criticism, and a lawyer for the state’s Ethics Committee agreed with her, saying he can fly at the governor’s invitation.
A year earlier, Haley reimbursed about $ 10,000 for using state planes to attend press conferences and bill signatures, after being told about a ban that lawmakers discreetly placed in the state budget, in part because they were tired of seeing it fly across the state to carry out events that attacked them.
Also in 2013, the House Ethics Committee rejected claims that state deputy Bill Chumley, R-Woodruff, misused the planes to transport a conservative commentator from Washington, DC to testify about a bill. A clause in the state budget specifies that transportation to and from legislative meetings does not qualify as official business. But violating this requires the legislature to know it was wrong and to benefit economically, the committee concluded.
Flights authorized by lawmakers, the governor and other constitutional officers are absorbed as part of the agency’s budget. Public agencies and colleges can also use the planes for official business, but must pay by the hour. The agency is prohibited from profiting from the hourly cost.
Massey is not the first lawmaker to suggest that planes be discarded.
Amid the controversies of 2013, senators voted to sell the planes, saying this would end the recurring accusations of their misuse by government officials. The 26 to 14 vote inserted the proposal into the Senate budget plan, but the House withdrew it.
Follow Adam Benson on Twitter @ AdamNewshound12.