Junket Junkie
You know your school board is coming off the rails when its most vocally fiscal conservative member is also its biggest budget buster – at least, in this case, when it comes to jet-setting around the country.
Kaye McGarry flew over her travel expense allotment last year, and appears on track for a repeat performance this year, according to WBTV:
Every year CMS school board members receive $3100 a year for travel. The board chairman gets $5150 a year. Last year school board member Kaye McGarry went over by about $600.
Her colleague Tim Morgan bailed her out.
“I had extra in my account,” CMS school board member Tim Morgan said. “And I said absolutely. First year on the board, helping to build board relation. I thought it made sense at that time.”
…
McGarry argues she did nothing wrong. She says she lost some of her travel expenses last year when she gave up some of the money to help pay for a facilitator for a school board retreat.
She also says board members have the option to request money from their peers who have unused money left in their travel account.
“It’s just sitting there.” McGarry said.
Right now McGarry has about $500 left in her travel account. It appears she will go over again this year. We asked Morgan will he bail her out for a second time?
“I will not be willing to loan it for the second year in the row,” Morgan said. “Because I think it is incumbent for us as board members to lead the way.”
Acknowledging the obvious – that $3,100 is literally less than peanuts in CMS’ billion-dollar-plus budget – Morgan would do better by not supporting reckless proposals like ballooning CMS’ budget request by $55 million, than by pinching pennies on the travel budget. At the same time, somebody needs to ground McGarry’s high-flying junkets.
Most of the votes McGarry casts and arguments she makes from the dais reflect reasonable opposition to CMS’ excessive ways. In that vein, McGarry should be walking her talk about fiscal discipline, instead of traveling around the country on the taxpayer’s dime to conferences and seminars. If she thinks the powwows are of benefit to her, she should dig into her own pocket to cover the expense, not reach into ours.
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