Former Tennessee Gov. Phil BredesenNASHVILLE – Gov. Bill Haslam’s Cabinet members have taken 24 fewer out-of-state trips so far this year than their predecessors did during the last six months of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration, state records show.
Bredesen’s department heads made 42 journeys outside the state from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2010, with at least some of the costs charged to state government, according to reports posted on the Department of Finance and Administration’s website – a practice begun by Bredesen and continued by Haslam.
Some of the Bredesen Cabinet travel occurred just weeks before the commissioners left office.
Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz went to Washington Sept. 29-Oct. 2 for what is described on the department’s website report as a meeting at the “Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information.” On Nov. 8, Goetz announced his resignation to become a vice president of Ingenix, a health care information technology and services company.
Former Revenue Commissioner Regan Farr, who announced in August his resignation effective Sept. 1, made two trips in July, the last being a visit to the New York University Summer Institute in Taxation Conference that ended July 30.