Taxpayers to Finance D.C. Trip

TRIP PAID BY TAXPAYERS

State taxpayers apparently will get the bill when the governor and six legislators travel to Washington to testify at a Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor. At $358 each for round-trip airplane tickets and $75 per diem for four days, the public will pay about $4,600 to finance the trip for Gov. Bruce Babbitt and the legislators. Sens. Leo Corbet, R-Phoenix; Stan Turley, R-Mesa; and Alfredo Gutierrez, D-Phoenix; and Reps. Art Hamilton, D-Phoenix; and Donna Carlson West, R-Mesa, have been scheduled as witnesses. REP. TONY WEST, R-Phoenix, also has applied for trip expenses, but he said other business may keep him at home during the hearings, which are scheduled next Wednesday through Friday . Neither acting Auditor General Ron Wilson nor Legislative Council Director Greg Jernigan wanted to say whether the trip is official business or a political function. “I wouldn’t touch that with a 10- foot pole,” said Wilson, who works for the Legislature. “I’m not interested in being quoted,” Jernigan said. “But, frankly, when a federal body asks for testimony, there’s not much question in my mind that that’s official business.” Senate Comptroller Dennis Booher referred The Gazette to Corbet, who was not available. “CHECK WITH the president’s office,” Booher said. “I’m sure it isn’t Senate business.” Attorney General Bob Corbin, a Republican, said he was checking on the propriety of using public funds for the trip. “I don’t know