Six weeks before he won reelection to a second term last November, Gov. Peter Shumlin rode a state-owned airplane to a campaign event and failed to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the trip.
On September 27, Shumlin flew from Berlin’s Knapp State Airport to Newport State Airport and then on to Lyndonville’s Caledonia County Airport to take part in a series of economic development announcements, according to Shumlin chief of staff Elizabeth Miller.
After completing his official duties, the governor was flown to Middlebury State Airport and then driven to a house party in Lincoln to raise money for his reelection campaign, Miller says. The Agency of Transportation, which operates the Cessna 182, billed the governor’s office $332.76 for Shumlin’s air travel that day.
After Seven Days inquired about whether Shumlin used the plane to travel to campaign events, the governor’s office said it had decided to ask the campaign to reimburse taxpayers for the final leg of that day’s trip, which the AOT says cost just $65.80.
“That seems to me to be the right thing to do,” Miller says. “We’ve also asked AOT that in the future, should the plane be used by our office, to bill us by leg, so that if such expenses need to be reviewed, we can do that.”
The September 27 trip was one of five plane rides taken by Shumlin since he was elected governor — all of which took place between August 30 and October 25 of last year, according to records provided by the governor’s office. The total cost of the flights amounted to $1671.32.
Why the sudden uptick in plane travel last fall?
“The governor didn’t know that there was a state plane for use until last summer,” Shumlin spokeswoman Sue Allen said in a written statement.
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