Governor shouldn’t hide travel receipts

Published 9:19 pm Saturday, August 16, 2014

The governor’s spending is the public’s business. With very few exceptions, the public has a right to see any government official’s receipts.

That’s why Gov. Rick Perry is wrong to hide his travel expenses, and Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office is wrong to rule that he’s allowed to.

“Thanks to a new ruling from the office of Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety will not have to provide itemized travel records for the security detail after all,” Jay Root of the Texas Tribune reports. “The DPS is still releasing the overall spending, with figures broken down into into five broad categories. But the ruling means that the public won’t know precisely what their tax dollars paid for when it comes to the governor’s security detail.”

This isn’t the first time the issue has come up. As Perry spent heavily on security during his presidential run in 2012, newspapers and transparency advocates requested his records. He refused to make them public, citing security concerns.

The Texas Legislature passed a law requiring the governor’s office to make those records public — after 18 months. But Abbott’s ruling limits the scope of that law.

“Relying on DPS assertions that releasing the old information represents an ongoing security threat, Abbott’s office blocked inspection of the travel records even though they were submitted years after the expenses were incurred,” Root explains. “Transparency advocates who had pushed for disclosure of the records, which once were available for public inspection, say Abbott’s ruling is another blow to open government in Texas. As attorney general, Abbott, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, decides what information government agencies have to provide under state transparency laws.”

Abbott, who hopes to become governor himself, and his office cited a “substantial threat of physical harm” as justification for limiting disclosure.

That’s ridiculous. As state Sen. Kevin Eltife said when the law was being discussed, the security details were for events that have already happened.

“After the fact, I don’t see how it’s a security threat to anybody,” Eltife noted.

Perry’s expenses are substantial when he travels, and he’s been on the road a lot lately — in places like Iowa.

“A phalanx of security guards accompanies him on those trips, and that costs money,” Root says. “In March of this year, the costs of providing Perry’s security in Washington, D.C. alone, where he addressed the CPAC Conference — a magnet for GOP White House hopefuls — hit $16,000. That included $8,600 for transportation, $4,000 for lodging and $2,200 for food; another $1,200 was listed as ‘other.’ The state spent $48,000 on security — including $7,000 for ‘other’ — for Perry’s April trip to Palau in the South Pacific.”

In fact, Texas taxpayers were picking up the tab for as much as $400,000 per month for security during Perry’s 2012 run, the Tribune adds.

Abbott’s office says he wasn’t “aware” of the ruling, which was made by staff.

But he’s aware of it now. The right thing for him to do is to reverse the ruling. Texans have a right to know how their governor is spending their money.