Clemson University spent more money traveling during the last fiscal year than any other state agency, racking up nearly $10 million in travel expenses according to a report released Friday by the S.C. Comptroller General’s Office.
As usual, the University of South Carolina ($8.9 million) and MUSC in Charleston ($5.1. million) ranked second and third in the report.
Other big-dollar travelers include the S.C. Judicial Department ($1.7 million), the State Department of Education ($1.6 million) and the utterly worthless S.C. Employment Security Commission ($1.1 million).
The S.C. House of Representatives spent $800,000, while the Senate spent $420,000.
Travel costs were down this year considerably, although that’s not saying much considering the rampant growth in recent years.
Last South Carolina taxpayers forked over a grand total of $80 million on travel expenses for state agencies in FY 2007-08, which is more than a full percent of the state budget.
That figure also represented a $27 million (51%) increase in travel costs from the previous two years.
WEB EXTRA
By Liberty For Me November 13, 2009 at 2:38 pm
.Uhhhh…Can we say privatize..and costs will go down
Government has no business in Education….As they cant run a business and we don’t need federal propaganda
By fitslies November 13, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Can we say…..very little SC $$ were spent by Clemson. They lump all the grant related travel, athletics travel, and the meager amount of state travel $$ together…..so, when CU brings in lots of grant $$, they need $$ to travel to where they do the work, and that doesn’t cost the state any money……It is unfair to lump all these sources of funds together and ASSUME they all come from the state…..
By OnNoNotAgain November 13, 2009 at 4:31 pm
The state Department of Commerce has to be right up there, even without useless trips to Argentina on its plate. Are those numbers reported?
By CNSYD November 13, 2009 at 5:47 pm
fitslies, don’t you know an agenda when you see one? FITS has a hard on for Clemson so he uses half truths and distortions.
By Andrew November 16, 2009 at 9:07 am
Poor blog entry because it doesn’t break down athletic travel, which is paid for funds earned from ticket, sponsorship, media rights, and other outside funds vs. funds driven by administratively driven funds.
Even then, seeing how Clemson has research stations around the state, along with a dwindling number of extension offices, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Clemson leads other state agencies in amount spent on travel.
A realistic blog entry would try to have an “eye-ball” audit of the travel to determine if it was a legitimate purpose – professor recruitment, conferences, etc., or otherwise paid for, such as traveling sports teams.
Travel costs for Sports teams has been cut fwiw, just this past Saturday, the entire Clemson travel party bused to Raleigh and back for the NC State game, vs. the usual flight between RDU and GSP.