A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Montana’s governor gets around the state, and sometimes to cities like Denver or Seattle, in a Beechcraft King Air twin turboprop aircraft. With good short field performance, a 1,500-mile range, and an almost 300 mph cruising speed, it’s an ideal aircraft for moving the governor promptly and efficiently. Every part of the state is less than two hours flying time from Helena. The 500-mile flights to Seattle and Edmundton are two-hour trips, and the 600-mile flight to Denver is only 30 minutes longer.
For people who believe the governor’s time is valuable, and who believe that travel by air is safer than travel by automobile, the governor’s traveling by King Air is a virtue and a no-brainer.
But for freshman Rep. Brad Tschida (R-Missoula), the governor’s airplane is a $ 1,650 per hour boondoggle. He believes it would be cheaper if the governor traveled by commercial airliner or chartered aircraft, and to places such as Butte, by a state motor pool automobile. Therefore, he convinced the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government to strip from the state’s budget $662,000 for operating the governor’s aircraft.
It’s not a new idea. As Charles Johnson reported yesterday, Democrats tried, then abandoned, a similar ploy when Stan Stephens was governor.
It was a bad idea then, and it’s a bad idea now. Tschida and his fellow Republicans may claim they’re trying to impose fiscal discipline on the governor’s office, but they who believe that will believe anything. This is high school level political gotcha and playground bully political harassment. Voters hate it.
Instead of defunding the governor’s aircraft, Tschida should ensure that the budget includes sufficient money for making sure the King Air’s avionics are state-of-the-art, and that the aircraft is kept in a factory fresh condition.