Death By Statistics

Too many numbers! This story about the increased use of state planes by Governor Blagojevich (or his staff, or something) is barely interesting but dies under the weight of the all the figures:

The governor's budget director flies on state aircraft nearly once every 21/2 days...

[snip]

In fact, Filan's 210 flights during the first two years of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration was nearly twice as many as the previous budget director took in nearly four years. Typically Filan, who lives in Chicago, flies on one of the six daily shuttle flights the state operates between Chicago and the capital.

[snip]

The Blagojevich administration's use of state aircraft is up 27 percent from Gov. George Ryan's administration...

[snip]

Administration officials argue that while flights might be up, Blagojevich has cut general travel costs by 21 percent since he took office.

[snip]

Overall, use of state aircraft from January 2003, when Blagojevich took office, through April 15, 2005, is down 2 percent from the same stretch of time at the start of Ryan's administration, January 1999 through April 15, 2001, the analysis shows. Other sectors of government - the attorney general and secretary of state, for instance - have reduced their use of aircraft by more than 3,700 flights, or 27 percent.

But employees under Blagojevich have jumped on state planes 15,000 times. That's 3,100 - or 27 percent - more than those under Ryan in his first 27 months in office.

[snip]

But the agencies using them pay only about 80 percent of the cost, according to an analysis of agency figures. It has cost IDOT $1.24 million to operate flights for gubernatorial agencies since 2003, but the agencies have paid back only $990,000.

[snip]

Blagojevich has flown 20 percent less than Ryan did in his first 27 months - 263 flights to Ryan's 327. He and his immediate staff have flown about 160 times more than Ryan and his staff, a 5 percent increase.

[snip]

Filan and his staff have taken state planes 1,230 times, a 428 percent increase over the 233 that Ryan budget director Stephen Schnorf and his staff took during the comparable period under Ryan.

[snip]

The Department of Public Health has increased its flights by 265 percent over the Ryan administration.

Even the head of the obscure Illinois Industrial Commission flies nearly once every three days - more than twice as much as the entire agency flew during Ryan's first months in office.

WHEW! Got all that.

The bottom line seems to be that the Blagojevich administration is spending too much time in Chicago necessitating all the travel between there and Springfield. Maybe so (the numbers don't lie, only confuse), but was this line really necessary:

...a spokeswoman concedes more top aides are flying because more of them live in Chicago than in previous administrations - precisely the point made by critics who claim Blagojevich, who does not live in Springfield's Executive Mansion, has largely transferred the state capital to Chicago.

I think that's overstating things a bit. If the capital has been "largely transferred" to Chicago, why the need to travel to Springfield so much?