newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Governor Chris Christie, who has made a practice of cutting the fat out of state budgets and knocking those who abuse taxpayer money, has seen his use of helicopters triple since receiving criticism last June.

Flight logs say that Christie took 64 helicopter rides during the nine month period through February, an average of about a trip every four days,

Christie said, according to the New York Daily News, “I am not going to be, with four children, driving around this state at 90 miles an hour trying to make stuff, and put my life and the life of other people at risk. When it’s appropriate to use the helicopter, I will.”

According to philly.com, the flight logs say that Christie's helicopter trips have cost at least $217,700 since he became governor in January 2010. A total of $1,741 was reimbursed by the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Republican state committees for two political flights, and another was paid for by Mitt Romney's campaign.

The trips included five flights to his house in Mendham or to a vacation home owned by New Jersey for governors' use at Island Beach State Park. Each location is about 50 miles from the Trenton statehouse.

Christie was highly criticized in May 2011 for using a police helicopter to fly to his son’s high school baseball game. The governor’s trip took an hour, and cost was estimated at $2,500. According to the Wall Street Journal, State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said Christie’s helicopter use was “no additional cost to taxpayers or the State Police budget.”

Reports said that Governor James McGreevey used helicopters 277 times in his first year in office, while former governors Thomas Kean and Jim Florio flew hundreds of times a year. Jon Corzine paid for his own air travel.