WEST COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – The Republican leader in the South Carolina Senate wants to sell two state planes that lawmakers and government officials can use, as long as they promise they will be for official business.
Senate majority leader Shane Massey said on Friday that he will present a proposal next week after reading an article in The State newspaper detailing how lawmakers used the state plane for trips he called “funded vacation trips”. by taxpayers.
“The lack of faith that results from this kind of use, for me, would be better if we just get rid of things,” said Massey, an Republican from Edgefield.
An investigation by The State newspaper and Hilton Island’s The Island Packet revealed that the minority leader of the House, Todd Rutherford, traveled on the state plane to conferences at luxury resorts with his then girlfriend, while taxpayers paid their bill flights.
Once there, the Democrat of Columbia sometimes spent his campaign donations to cover expenses, although organizers already provided food and lodging, the newspapers found.
Rutherford said there was nothing illegal or unethical about his actions, although at least four legal and ethics experts told the newspaper that they were challenging the minority leader in the House’s interpretation of the law, saying the authorities and their guests should use the plane for official business only.
Lawmakers can use the state plane for official business. What this means is often left to your own interpretation. In 2013, a Republican lawmaker sent the state plane to Virginia to seek an economist to testify about a bill that would overturn the health care law supported by former President Barack Obama.
The rules are a little more defined by the governors. Former Governor Mark Sanford paid the largest ethical fine in state history – almost $ 75,000 – in part for using the state plane to attend his children’s sporting events, hair and dentist appointments, political party meetings and a campaign donor’s birthday party.
Lawmakers tightened aviation rules for the governor after that, and former governor Nikki Haley paid more than $ 9,500 to the state when she used the plane to sign bills, press conferences and rallies to support her tax reform plans. .
In May 2013, the state Senate voted to sell state planes after the issues with Haley and lawmakers. Massey was not there that day, but said he supported the idea. The Chamber did not vote and the proposal died.
“It worked for a while. and then the spotlight went out, “said Massey.
Massey said his idea is a starting point and that he will hear proposals that can set a strict limit on the use of the plane, but with an attentive ear.
“My concern is that we try this. We tried several times. And people are always finding a way to get around the rules, “said Massey.
Massey, who said he had never flown the state plane and could not identify them if they rolled down the runway several hundred meters from where he spoke at Columbia Metropolitan Airport, said there are many other options for the governor, legislators and government officials. been getting places.
“There are commercial opportunities. There are chartering opportunities. We can get NetJets cards. We have motor vehicles, ”said Massey.
Massey spent much of his 13 years in the Senate fighting for transparency and accountability. In recent years, he has clashed with the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Hugh Leatherman, who had a lot of power because he was also the provisional chairman of the Senate.
When voters decided that the president of the Senate and not the deputy governor should preside over the chamber in 2018, Massey got senators to agree that the president also could not be chairman of a committee.
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.