Report Says Pence Is Relying More On Campaign Donors For Travel Expenses

The Journal-Gazette's Niki Kelly has a story today discussing Gov. Mike Pence's travel expenses since taking office in January 2013. She found that he spent more taxpayer dollars his first year in office than his second year because he's relying more on campaign donors to pay for his travel expenses. He took flight on 40 trips around the state in 2013 at a cost of $69,700 compared to 14 trips costing $57,200 so far in 2014 according to Kelly. His campaign paid for 13 trips at a cost of $18,210 in 2013 compared to 12 trips at a cost of $14,000 for the first six months of 2014.

Pence decided to sell the state's King Air plane for about $2.5 million at the end of last year that he used for state air travel to save on travel expenses. Yet the cost of far fewer privately-chartered flights have cost close to what travel on the state-owned plane cost. The travel expenses don't cover the overseas trade missions Pence has taken since becoming governor. He relies on undisclosed private donors to pay for those expenses just like Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has done on nine of his overseas trips over the past six and a half years.

One of Pence's out-of-state trips included an in-kind contribution from Koch Industries, which paid for a $4,600 trip to fly Pence, his wife and security detail to Palm Beach, Florida for a campaign fundraiser for big donors. In addition to the trip to Florida, Pence has taken several campaign trips this year to New York and D.C. Kelly's story make no mention of Vitesse Aviation owned by Jerry Slusser, the mysterious Las Vegas businessman who in the past has provided private chartered aircraft to a bunch of Indiana Republican politicians.