Following up on Thom Cole’s story in the Albuquerque Journal on Lt. Gov. Diane Denish’s extensive and expensive use of state jets during our budget crisis, here is a spreadsheet covering her use of state aircraft since 2003. A key to the destination codes is below the spreadsheet.
Copy of Aircraft Usage by Lt Gov 2003-2009-2 – The spread sheet shows what taxpayers paid for her to use the planes. It also shows who flew with her. What it doesn’t show is why Denish felt it necessary to spend thousands of dollars to fly to some New Mexico town for a few hours and then back to Albuquerque, considering the fact she really has no executive powers. She sits on various boards and committees, but her actual powers as Lt. Gov. are limited to managing her own small staff and serving as President of the Senate during legislative sessions and casting a vote in the event of a tie. Why run up $170,000 in charges when she could just as easily have driven to, say, Gallup or Farmington? Or why use a plane to fly to Las Vegas, just over over the hill, pretty much, from her office in Santa Fe? There are also such things as cell phones that let her stay in touch while on the road, and they are a lot cheaper than the approximately $1,200/per hour it costs to use the Cessna Citation.

Here is the key to the destination codes as they appear on this spreadsheet:
ABQ = Albuquerque
ALM = Alamogordo
ATS = Artesia
CNM = Carlsbad
FMN = Farmington
GUP = Gallup
HOB = Hobbs
LVS = Las Vegas (NM, not NV…and why she needed a plane to fly from Santa Fe to Las Vegas is a real mystery. We’d ask, but her office doesn’t speak to us by phone or e-mail. But, of course, they criticize us for not asking for comment.)
LRU = Las Cruces
ROW = Roswell
RTN = Raton
SAF = Santa Fe
SKX = Taos
TCC = Tucumcari

SKX could also indicate a flight to the Saransk airport in Russia (SKX). Maybe Di slipped away on a secret mission she’s not talking about, and never can.