Per Axios, Arizona House Speaker Toma and three Republican staff members took a taxpayer funded trip to Romania (Toma’s birthplace) in October. Toma’s brother, Mihai, accompanied them, but paid for his own trip. While there, they met with Romanian trade officials. The cost was reported around $32,000. Now, personally, I do not think taxpayer funded foreign trips for state and local government officials are appropriate. However, they’re not outside the norm, and $10,000 per person for an overseas trip of this type is a pretty reasonable sum. The issue I have with Axios’ piece is that it’s a preemptive counterattack to a coming hit on Democrat Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. And I don’t know if the reporter – Jeremy Duda – was even aware of the water he was carrying, though I suspect he was.
Over the summer, Gallego made a taxpayer funded trip to the Olympics. She reportedly took staff, and a security detail. I guarantee she spent a hell of a lot more than $32,000. Given Mayor Gallego’s predilection for First Class flights, luxury accommodations, and the limo she booked for the entirety of her stay in Paris, her total might be ten times what Toma spent. Trade with Romania is nominally related to the State of Arizona. Partying with the global elite at the Paris Olympics has ZERO to do with the business of the city of Phoenix. Also, most of Phoenix couldn’t identify Kate Gallego if they ran into her on the street. Bringing a security detail to Paris was nothing but a “look at how important I am” flex for Gallego’s real constituents in the UN and World Economic Forum.
We’re going to learn how much Gallego’s desperation for global import cost Phoenix taxpayers soon, because the Goldwater Institute had recently filed a Freedom of Information Act request regarding that info. Which is the issue: this entire piece, and the timing of it, was a preemptive strike to give cover to Kate Gallego’s profligacy. Again, I’m not sure if the author is even aware of the Goldwater FOIA, but I am sure he’s spent a decade being used as a reliable stalking horse for Democrat talking points. In the age of Zoom, I don’t see any reason for state or local officials to be taking taxpayer-funded trips at all. But the timing of the Axios report is a giant red flag.
Toma should have stayed home. So should Gallego. Or pay for it themselves. And leave our dang cops here, Kate, your terrible coddling of BLM means we need every one we still have on the streets of Phoenix, not Paris.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
