Earlier this week, I wrote about the failure of Gov. Jim Doyle and Lt. Gov. Barb Lawton to properly account for all their travel expenses, but it turns out I’ve got a correction to make.
Lt. Gov. Lawton’s office has issued a press release making it clear Lawton provided receipts 98 percent of the time, as opposed to the 25 percent compliance rate I noted (which was reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel):
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Center for Investigative Journalism today issued a correction for a July 5, 2009 front page investigative news article where they stated Lt. Governor Lawton and her staff failed to provide receipts one third of the time in 2007 and 2008. In reality, Lawton and staff provided receipts 98 percent of the time and were only missing one receipt from the records the Journal Sentinel deemed “travel records” for the two-year period.
Lt. Governor Lawton issued the following statement: “When I first received a call from a reporter working with the Center for Investigative Journalism asking for a response to their analysis of my compliance with rules for state employees regarding travel expenses and their reporting, I expressed incredulity that we were not close to 100% compliant. Our office offered to review the reports with them to ensure accuracy in reporting, but they declined the offer.
H/T to Michael Mathias.
Across the aisle there is a different opinion…
Not sure what happened but this should have said:
Across the aisle there is a different opinion…
MADISON – Citing a failure on the part of Governor Jim Doyle to properly account for travel expenses and document expenditures that may have violated a reasonable-cost condition state statute, the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board and asked the Board to investigate violations of state standards of conduct.
Perhaps they should have called the Governor first before filing a complaint.