I think I know why the Minnesota GOP is so hard on the minimum wage. Its business brains need all the help they can get just to break even.
Mitch Berg, Luke Hellier and the MNGOP itself seem to think State Auditor Rebecca Otto is, to quote Mitch, "Like A Junkie With A Stolen Platinum Card."
As I have pointed out elsewhere, Otto saved the state far more money by eliminating the featherbed position occupied by former deputy auditor Tony Sutton (now MNGOP Chair) than she will ever spend on her expense reports.
Really, like a junkie? Because she split a lobster dinner with another state employee and paid the book rate at a conference hotel?
The MNGOP is supposed to be the party of business, but their brain trust can’t figure out an expense report. Let me help. Otto traveled on December 8th (on a Saturday to qualify for a lower air fare) and returned on the 12th, the time for which she submitted her controversial expense report. The state meal reimbursement is $31 per day. She claimed $90.48 for the period, not just for one day.
We trust our readers here to do their own math.
As for the claims about exorbitant hotel rates, ask your own company CEO what he thinks a top executive’s time is worth and whether he goes to Days Inn to save the shareholders money. Or whether the cheap hotel savings would be spent on cabs back and forth from the conference hotel.
The PERA, for which Otto is a trustee, budgets for its trustees to attend two conferences. As near as I can tell, she only attended one for the year in question.
