Commissioner Jonathan Gassett has spent more than $71,000 to attend meetings across the country during a time of financial belt-tightening across state government. That's far more than even the governor's chief industrial recruiter whose job requires extensive travel.
Gassett took twenty trips to Washington, plus excursions to more than twenty other states since 2008. A review by the Associated Press found state bureaucrats spent generously on travel throughout the worst economic recession in a generation.
More than $128 million has been spent on travel since the economic crash that forced agencies to slash their budgets by up to thirty percent. Meanwhile, travel spending was reduced by a relatively meager $2.1 million or about seven percent.