N.J.’s Christie Used Chopper Almost Every Three Days [View all]

[Purveyor]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is relying on the state-owned helicopter fleet more than ever, with 106 trips last year at a cost of $2,500 an hour.

Flight logs for Christie, a 51-year-old Republican, were released to Bloomberg as a result of a New Jersey Open Public Records Act request. Christie has stepped up his air time even as he imposes municipal budget constraints and insists that public workers must pay higher costs for pensions and benefits.

The flights last year compare with 23 in 2010, his first year in office; 66 in 2012; and 70 in 2011, records show.

Christie, who took office promising to “tear up the state’s credit card,” was criticized in 2011 after he arrived at his son’s high school baseball game on a State Police helicopter, then re-boarded for a political meeting at the governor’s mansion in Princeton. He and the Republican Party, some of whose fundraisers were courting Christie to run for president in 2012, reimbursed the state for the trips.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-30/n-j-s-christie-used-chopper-almost-every-three-days.html