Call it a minor technicality or call it a deception.
Chad Livengood of the Detroit News reports Emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s spokesman Bill Nowling on Tuesday clarified his previous statements his boss made about paying for his personal travel expenses back home to Maryland.
The paper notes that In August, WXYZ reporters asked Orr if he paid for his weekly travel. He often goes back home to Maryland to see his family.
“I pay my travel,” Orr replied. “... I pay my travel out of pocket every week.”
Well, guess what. That's not really the case.
The News reports that Nowling said Orr uses his credit card to pay for weekly plane tickets and then gets reimbursed by Gov. Rick Snyder's NERD Fund for “the coach-rate fare.”
Oh well, maybe Orr doesn't really understand that if you pay for something and get reimbursed, it means you really didn't pay for it. Maybe the IRS needs to educate him.
Meanwhile, the News reports that Gov. Snyder on Tuesday defended using his NERD Fund to pay for Orr’s living expenses in Detroit.
The governor says the New Energy to Reinvest and Diversify Fund, or NERD Fund, was designed to offset the cost of government with private donations to the not-for-profit organization, the News reported.
According to the News:
City and state officials disclosed Monday that the NERD Fund is spending $4,200 a month on Orr’s lodging at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit and airfare so he can commute home to suburban Washington, D.C., to see his family on weekends.
The fund has come under a lot of criticism because the governor does not need to disclose the names of the donors. -- Allan Lengel
