SC senator says taxpayers shouldn’t fund officials’ state plane use, cites abuse
A South Carolina lawmaker is introducing legislation to sell two state airplanes meant for officials’ travel to and from official business.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, made the announcement Friday at the S.C. Aeronautics Commission in West Columbia following exclusive reporting by The State and Island Packet. The story appeared online on Thursday and will appear in the print edition in coming days.
After that same reporting, Gov. Henry McMaster directed the state’s Department of Administration to “conduct an up-to-date analysis on the cost and benefits of maintaining or selling aircraft owned by state agencies and institutions of higher education,” McMaster’s spokesman Brian Symmes said Friday.
The newspapers found House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, had traveled with his girlfriend, who is now his wife, on one of the taxpayer-funded state planes to conferences at luxury resorts. The lawmaker said state law allowed him to bring his girlfriend on the plane and that he was invited to speak at the conferences as a lawmaker.
“Nothing’s hidden, nothing’s illegal, nothing’s unethical,” Rutherford told The State.
But, “taxpayers should not be paying for legislators’ vacations,” Massey said Friday, adding that he didn’t consider conferences to be official business.
Massey said the latest controversy with the state plane joins a long list of other questionable trips taken by public officials over the years, and is a problem that needs to be addressed.
“If this were the first reported abuse then I probably wouldn’t take the drastic step of saying, ‘Let’s just sell the planes,’ but what’s gotten me to this point is this isn’t the first reported abuse. It’s not even the second,” he said.
Controversy surrounding the state planes goes back decades.
In 2012, for example, then-Gov. Nikki Haley repaid the state nearly $10,000 after taking the aircraft to press conferences and bill signings in violation of state rules. Before that, former Gov. Mark Sanford’s flights for dentist appointments, haircuts and political gatherings for campaign donors — and other ethics charges — ultimately led to a $74,000 fine for the governor. He also reimbursed the state almost $8,000 for personal use of the state-owned aircraft. And, in 1984, former Democratic Sen. Jack Lindsay came under fire after taking a state flight to Tampa, Florida for the Super Bowl.
State senators previously moved to get rid of the planes in 2013, but House members voted the measure down.
The newspapers reported Thursday that Rutherford and his wife, Megan Pinckney Rutherford, who was his girlfriend at the time, had taken at least six flights together on the state plane, including trips to conferences at a mountain lodge in North Carolina and a beachfront resort in Florida, according to flight records.
Rules for use of the plane are outlined in state law: Public officials “and their invitees” shall fly on the S.C. Aeronautics Division aircraft “for official business only.” Rutherford interprets the law to mean that only public officials must be on official business, not their invitees.
Four ethicists and legal experts consulted by the newspapers disputed his interpretation, saying the guests must also be conducting official business, while two others said his travel pointed to an untested area of the law.
Rutherford, who has taken the most flights of any lawmaker during the last nine years, could provide no official reason for Pinckney Rutherford, a social media influencer and the 2013 Miss South Carolina USA, to accompany him on the trips, beyond her connection to him. Legal experts also questioned why his campaign manager had accompanied the couple on a flight to Charleston last year for a speaking engagement.
The state planes are used most frequently by the governor and agency heads but lawmakers are free to reserve them as well. The Aeronautics Division doesn’t police the purpose of the flights, which are charged to taxpayers at $1,000 to $1,500 per hour of air time. Officials and their invitees must sign sworn statements saying they are on official state business.
Reached Friday, Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, said he too supports selling the state planes and believes those who use the aircraft frequently can take other cheaper options, as required by law.
“The state has really no business owning a private plane,” he said. “South Carolina has plenty of public airports and can get around the state just fine. Legislators and public officials can fly commercial just like anyone else.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 3:38 PM with the headline "SC senator says taxpayers shouldn’t fund officials’ state plane use, cites abuse."