State workers take over $900,000 in trips despite warnings to cut back
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - In the weeks after Governor Doyle's administration ordered state employees to curb unnecessary travel, those same workers charged the state more than $900,000 for hundreds of trips around the world.
Records obtained by The Associated Press show that Wisconsin state employees visited at least 30 states and the District of Columbia and eight foreign countries in more than 300 trips taken just the first three months of the year.
The amount spent on travel and the number of places visited actually is much greater than the reports show since the University of Wisconsin System submitted an incomplete report.
The system accounted for nearly 90 percent of the out-of-state travel last fiscal year.
May 8, 2008 at 7:21 a.m.
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Doyle cut taxes? Are you kidding? He is a tax happy liberal democrat. Cutting taxes isn't going to happen with him in office.
May 7, 2008 at 5:57 p.m.
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I see a lot of misinformed comments about state employee travel. In part, it is the fault of the Gazette for not printing the entire AP story. Last year, $19.7 million of the $22.1 million travel expense was incurred by the UW-System. If you have a world class University System doing world class research, there will be some world travel. The next largest "traveler" was the state investment board. The investment board runs one of the best, if not the best public investment portfolios in the Country. They research firms before they invest hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas corporations. That diligence includes site visits.
May 7, 2008 at 4:46 p.m.
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No..........gas taxes pay for our roads and bridges and the like to be fixed\maintained. Getting rid of the taxes is a stupid, short term idea.
May 7, 2008 at 4:44 p.m.
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Justmythoughts ~ The SYSTEM keeps you down? The system???? Where is it that says that you deserve the state to take care of you???? You could have been in the military and retired from the military and received a pension and lifetime healthcare. Or you could do a lot of other things to take care of YOURSELF. That is up to you. You want to live like the people that the state "takes" care of, enjoy your life, I am sure it will be wonderful.
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This article is about the travel that the government does. I agree that there should be more facts in here to make an educated statement on here, but with the budget shortfall, maybe they should stop travel.
May 7, 2008 at 3:02 p.m.
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I believe is it 32 cents per gallon state taxes
on gas right now in wi . I would think our govenor could stop taking the taxes out of our
gas ,.If there is that much money for these
ahhhh state workers to run around state to state and why would they ever have to go out of
the United States......................?
May 7, 2008 at 2:57 p.m.
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bkrkim - public schooling, right?
j m t - I think everyone has the same opportunities to fail or succeed, correct?
Don't vote / REVOLT
May 7, 2008 at 2:37 p.m.
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Ok vote for me. I want to take a trip. And to just my thoughts. I would quit both my jobs and do like I did drive down to Schaumburg Illinois and make bank because the people in Janesville are cheap tippers and yes I mean cheap...Did it for two days in Janesville made 20.00 as well maybe same restraunt. Or get a job in a bar that's where the monies at. Yep i'm a FIB. And dam proud of it.
May 7, 2008 at 12:31 p.m.
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Blah blah blah. Quit crying. Do you think the goverment really cares? This is quite normal for goverment to waste taxpayer money. If your shocked by this. maybe you should pick up a paper more often. I am not shocked at all.
May 7, 2008 at 11:33 a.m.
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This article doesn't provide any meaningful information to me unless it states what the travel costs are compared to the same time last year. Have they gone up, or have people curbed their travel like they were asked to do?
May 7, 2008 at 11:08 a.m.
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please see post #3 (Quitcherbitchin)
May 7, 2008 at 10:54 a.m.
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And these are the people I'm supposed to trust to run my health care?
May 7, 2008 at 10:04 a.m.
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shocking
May 7, 2008 at 8 a.m.
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"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it".
- Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address
Monday, March 4, 1861
May 7, 2008 at 7:41 a.m.
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Did we honestly expect anything different?
May 7, 2008 at 6:44 a.m.
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The bigger our government, state of federal gets, the harder it is to control. They tax the hell out of us and then waste our money on trips and all this other pork barrel crap.
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