Vermont transportation officials are asking for a new state-owned airplane, but at least one top lawmaker says the idea should be grounded.
"It just caught me by complete surprise that we'd be spending so much money when we don't have any money," says Sen. Dick Mazza (D-Grand Isle), who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee.
Vermont's Agency of Transportation (VTrans) is hoping to sell its 1962 Cessna 182 aircraft and replace it with a 2013 Beechcraft Baron. The state would pay $117,600 per year for 10 years in a lease-to-buy arrangement, says VTrans policy planning and intermodal development director Chris Cole.
(Pictured above is the Cessna with state aviation program administrator Guy Rouelle.)
Given that the plane would cost $250 an hour to operate and would likely fly about 150 hours a year, Cole estimates the total annual price tag would come to $155,100.
To Mazza, who first learned of the request during a Senate Transportation Committee meeting Friday, that's too much to spend when the state budget is already tight.
"This is not a time to be asking for that kind of money when we're talking about a shortage in our total funding," Mazza says. "I have a hard time believing we can own a plane cheaper than we can rent it when we need it."