Deval Patrick has been in the headlines for misuse of State Police helicopters for personal transportation. He has also been in the news lately for trying to impose a sales tax on aircraft used by his subjects. I learned today that Patrick has been shopping for a private jet to be paid for by the taxpayers. Patrick has his eye on an $11 million Lear 45. Deval Patrick was elected governor of a state that can be traversed north-south in about 1 hour by car and east-west in less than 2 hours. Why would he need a transcontinental private jet? To go to New York City to see the bankers from whom the state will have to borrow money to pay for his expanded spending programs? There are commercial flights every 30 minutes that leave from Logan Airport, just a 10-minute ride by limousine from the State House. To go to Washington, D.C. to hobnob with his fellow Democrats? There is a commercial flight every hour Monday through Friday.
[Folks: I had no idea that this posting would generate so much interest. I’m going back to my source for more info. I learned about this while flying with a jet pilot buddy. My friend is connected to all of the jet brokers and jet pilots at Hanscom Field. The plan that he heard about was for Governor Patrick to lease one of these jets, which costs more than buying but would not require an appropriation of all $11 million at once. Anyway, shopping for a jet can be a long and involved process due to the long backlog of orders for new jets (typically 3-5 years). Someone who wanted to lease or buy an existing airplane would need to contact a lot of different brokers.]
Phil,
I assume a purchase of that significance would require the approval of the state legislature or at least an oversight committee, no?
Probably. I’m digging for a little more information. I think that initially Governor Patrick was looking into a lease (same cost but easier to bury).
Perhaps we should thank Governor Patrick. His proposed sales tax on aircraft would destroy a lot of Massachusetts aviation jobs. With his new Learjet, though, he will be creating some.
I’d bet five bucks that they’re going to use homeland security dollars (or homeland security as an excuse) Some lame rationale like they need to be able to get bio-warfare experts up from some army base in Virginia at a moment’s notice. I can almost get the idea that the gov’s of Texas or California might be able to justify the occasional charter or air-taxi ride, but we gotta get the elected officials to understand that they aren’t royalty.
Oh yeah, and as for the tax, I think unless the general aviation community gets some better PR guys, it’s pretty much screwed. Flying is in danger of being so expensive that no regular guys do it; it runs the risk of being thought of as a frivolous hobby that only benefits doctors, lawyers, CEO’s etc. If that happens, there’ll be no constituency for not taxing it to death or for keeping airports open.
I just saw an excellent film “One-Six Right” (highly recommended), and the beautiful camera work blew me away, but the film spent a fair amount of time on the challenges of just keeping even a very popular airport open.