Governor Eliot Spitzer will reimburse the state $140 for a trip to Western New York earlier this month:
The integrity commission helped Spitzer figure out his liability and determined he did not owe anything, Cockfield said, because the governor only used the aircraft on the first day of his trip when he had state business and did not use state aircraft to return on the second day of the journey, returning by State Police car.
Despite that, Spitzer is paying back $140 out of his own pocket for one hour out of 22 that he spent in Buffalo. The governor multiplied 1/22 times $3,100 -- the cost of a charter plane from Albany to Buffalo -- to figure his payment.
Spitzer is paying the state back because he did attend two fundraisers while he was in WNY - one in Buffalo and one in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford. Even though the state's Commission on Public Integrity ruled that he owed nothing, Spitzer is still paying up. |
