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Chris Christie <em>Will</em> Reimburse NJ For State Chopper Use
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 2, 2011
Modified Jun 2, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 2, 2011
Modified Jun 2, 2011
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Well, would you look at that: After his spokesman said that taking a state helicopter to his son's baseball game was appropriate, NJ Governor Chris Christie has decided to reimburse the state. In fact, Christie is going to reimburse the beleaguered Garden State for all the personal trips he's made with the chopper. Good thing his wife has a high-paying job—and we bet he saved up a little something when he was a lobbyist.
NJ.com reports, "Spokeswoman Maria Comella says Christie has paid $2,251 to the state to cover the cost of all trips," which include two trips to see one of his son's ball games. "Comella also says the state GOP has paid $919 to cover the cost of Christie's trip Tuesday when used the helicopter to fly 75 miles from a game in Montvale to Princeton to take meeting with a group of top GOP campaign contributors from Iowa."
Yesterday, the NJ State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes claimed that Christie's trips incurred "no additional cost to taxpayers or the State Police budget... It is important to understand that State Police helicopters fly daily homeland security missions, and use flight time for training purposes, more so lately as we acclimate our pilots to the new aircraft. These are flight hours that would be logged in any event." But it's better to have this issue put to bed before 2012, right?
A NJ Assembly member said she would hold hearings into the chopper use, but it's unclear if that's still on the table.
Tagged
Chris Christie
election 2012
helicopter
new jersey
nj
republicans
state helicopter
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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