Commerce vet disputes travel letter explanation

The former state economic development leader who wrote a letter seeking permission to fly with his boss on more expensive seats says there was no intention of extending that benefit to governors.
   
J. Mac Holladay said Thursday the State Development Board was a much different and independent operation than a Cabinet agency that’s now run as the Commerce Department.
   
The governor’s top lawyer said Tuesday that a handwritten note on a Holladay letter from 1987 makes it clear that the comptroller general long ago approved exceptions for governors to fly in business class or better despite a regulation that says travel has to be at the lowest cost.
   
Holladay said he was most concerned at the time about multi-leg flights to Korea and Japan that took 20 hours.