Gov. OKd Costly Mission to Brazil

[peterh]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-airlift3jun03,1,4266804.story?coll=la-headlines-california

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dispatched a military jet and a 15-person team in April to retrieve an ailing state senator who was visiting Brazil — at a cost to taxpayers of $147,187, the administration confirmed Wednesday.

Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), who has returned to work in Sacramento, said he was nearing the end of a nine-day goodwill trip to Brazil — paid for with campaign funds — when he started feeling pressure in his chest.

On April 12, a California Air National Guard KC-135 military transport — somewhat similar to a Boeing 707 — took Vasconcellos back to California on a direct, 13-hour flight from Salvador to Moffett Field near San Jose. An ambulance met him there.

Joseph Cece, chief executive officer of AeroCare Air Ambulance in Chicago, said his firm would probably charge about $50,000 for a similar Brazil-to-San Jose flight on a Lear jet with a medical crew. Jeffrey Tolbert, president of AirMed International, said that a flight on a larger jet with a doctor, intensive care nurse, respiratory therapist and hospital-to-hospital service would cost $92,000.




I’m all for this guy getting back to the states and getting the care that he needed, but at the same time, I find some of this stuff troubling……foremost, he’s not on state business as he states, he’s retiring and using up his campaign fund (illegal???) on what clearly appears to be a boondoogle….and there were cheaper ways of getting the critter back, but I’m sure there would have been some red tape in the way the bill was handled from a private air ambulance vs. a military transport…..even though the critter was a democrat, this smells….