Tax Dollars at Work in N.Y. Senate Race

This just in: The total taxpayer cost of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate campaign travel to New York is . . . $145,786.08.

But that’s only if you count the first lady’s “official” and/or “political” trips to and from New York state from June 9 to Dec. 14, 1999.

And only if you accept the numbers that the White House supplied to congressional Republicans, who retabulated the figures and then added in their own cost estimates for Clinton’s use of military aircraft. That calculation was made public Thursday.

And that’s apart from the Republican Party’s own, apparently separate, reckoning of Senate candidate Clinton’s taxpayer tab of $905,406 for trips in and around New York throughout 1999. That figure was made public Wednesday.

Got all that? If you’re confused, you’re not alone.

What’s clear is that Clinton, who otherwise appears to relish blazing trails, so far has been reluctant to address directly the question of how much the taxpayers should pay for her unprecedented campaign. Her campaign press release Thursday provided no such totals. Nor did Hillary 2000 spokeswoman Karen Finney when asked.

So Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of a normally obscure Appropriations subcommittee that oversees White House, Treasury and postal spending, went fishing for answers in a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill.

“Since the first lady first announced her intention of running for the U.S. Senate, the phones in our subcommittee certainly have been ringing off the hook with concerned citizens calling to inquire about how the first lady’s travel is paid for,” Kolbe said, with White House aides and Republican operatives hovering in a camera-studded room.

But Kolbe insisted: “This is not an investigation. It’s information gathering.”

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the subcommittee’s top Democrat, heaped scorn on a proceeding he claimed was orchestrated for New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Clinton’s expected Republican opponent. Hoyer said Clinton and her entourage had no choice but to fly in Air Force planes as a security measure strongly recommended by the Secret Service.

“The problem she has is that she is the first lady and can’t ‘unbecome’ the first lady,” Hoyer said.

The Democratic line on an issue that Republicans are hoping to exploit is that Clinton is only following precedent for political travel and reimbursement set by, among others, former Republican first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush. A White House spokesman, Jim Kennedy, handed out memos from the Reagan and Bush administrations to back up that assertion.

When reminded that Clinton, unlike her two predecessors, is seeking public office herself, Kennedy said: “Right, but [Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush] were on the campaign trail for their husbands and others.”

For all the finger-pointing on both sides, the truth is that campaign travel is a major expense, and any candidate who can travel with a plane not chartered by his or her campaign has a major edge in mobility and cost. That’s because federal campaign rules only require candidates to reimburse the provider of the plane--in Clinton’s case, the government--with the estimate of a comparable first-class fare for trips that are designated as political. In some instances, when politicians are campaigning for others, they are only required to reimburse at coach rate. Either way, those rates are far lower than the cost of flying the plane itself.

For example, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) drew notice during his presidential campaigns for flying frequently on corporate jets put at his disposal by companies he deals with on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Vice President Al Gore, likewise, is required to reimburse the government for political use of Air Force Two.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Gore’s presumed Republican opponent in the presidential election, flies in a chartered jet paid for by the campaign and the journalists who travel with him.

But security for Bush is another story. The Texas Department of Public Safety is required to protect the governor under all circumstances. In a normal year, such as 1998, so-called “executive security” for the governor and his family cost Texas taxpayers $285,873.95.

Bush began campaigning actively for the presidential nomination in June, traveling throughout the country. As a result, security costs rose to $2.65 million for 1999 and this year’s total is $1.3 million through March 20, said Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Texas DPS.

Since the U.S. Secret Service took over the lead responsibility for protecting Bush on March 15, the bulk of the costs will be shared by all taxpayers in America.

When Clinton flies, her plane is dubbed Executive Foxtrot One. Frequently, it is an Air Force C-20 jet, which, according to Kolbe’s staff, costs $3,705 per hour to operate.

A typical trip documented by the subcommittee staff was Clinton’s July 12 to 15 excursion to New York destinations New Rochelle, Rye, Valhalla, Jones Beach, New York City, Garden City, Rockville Center, Holbrook and Great Neck. This trip, deemed political, included two “official passengers” flying on the government tab (most likely a White House trip coordinator and photographer) and three “political” passengers, including the first lady herself.

The flight time was 1 hour and 35 minutes, generating an estimated cost of $5,866.25 if the plane was a C-20. The government was reimbursed $1,946 for the political passengers--on Dec. 30, more than five months later. The taxpayers paid an estimated $3,920.25. The figures don’t count traveling Secret Service agents, whose numbers are classified.

Using that methodology and adding a dash of subjectivity for trips that were deemed official or quasi-official--a call made by the White House--26 Clinton trips to New York state from June 9 to Dec. 14 cost the government $182,471.25. As of March 1, Clinton’s campaign had reimbursed $36,685.17, yielding a total taxpayer expense of $145,786.08.

Rep. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.), on Kolbe’s panel, urged the White House to quell critics and make public a full accounting of Clinton’s travel records on a regular basis.

“Don’t make anybody dig and scratch and look for it,” he told White House aide Michael J. Lyle. “Just put it out there.”

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Times staff writer Maria L. La Ganga and researcher Massie Ritsch contributed to this story.