The Republican Party of Kentucky is calling on Crit Luallen to investigate whether or not Steve Beshear has reported any fringe benefits associated with the personal use of state aircraft.

How long have we been screaming about this?

Here’s the letter:

Dear Auditor Luallen,

News reports this year indicated that Gov. Steve Beshear received roughly $85,000 in free travel on the state airplane, which was then reimbursed by the Kentucky Democratic Party (see the attached article for more information). Some of this air travel was for a trip to the Final Four with his family. I think most Kentuckians would characterize a family vacation to a sporting event as “personal use” and a “fringe benefit” of being governor. In fact, doing the math according to news accounts, at least an additional $25,000 worth of air travel on top of the trip to the Final Four was reimbursed that wasn’t political in nature, indicating a personal use of the aircraft. The purpose of some of the Governor’s use of the state aircraft isn’t clear, according to the media.

News reports also indicate that your office has complained to the Internal Revenue Service about Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer’s alleged use of a state vehicle for personal use. In fact, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported the following on May 4, 2011: “On Monday, a lawyer for the state auditor’s office, Robert McBeath, wrote to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the Kentucky Revenue Department to advise them of Farmer’s ‘failure … to report fringe benefits associated with personal use of state-assigned vehicles.’” (see the attached article for more information).

I am writing today to ask you to investigate whether Governor Steve Beshear has reported any fringe benefits associated with personal use of his state-assigned airplane. If Governor Beshear has not reported this fringe benefit for his personal use of the state aircraft I request that you notify the IRS immediately and encourage them to take action against Governor Beshear. I also encourage you to notify the Kentucky Revenue Department to advise them as well.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from your office on this critical matter.

Sincerely,

Steve Robertson
Chairman

Click here (Warning: PDF Link) to see the complete letter with attachments from Robertson.

No, Crit isn’t likely to investigate now that half of her staff works for Papaw and the remaining folks are bogged down with other things. But we can have empty hopes, right?

Democratic hypocrisy is riiiiipe.