The expenses are not a "right" or "left" issue...it is common sense and respect and I think Premier Wynne's response yesterday was appropriate.
I think, generally, people understand that games are expensive to put on and that travel is needed/expected in order to host these things and, yes, that travel is, both, frequent and expensive. But when you see relatively highly paid people expense trivial daily things you wonder how careful they are with the bigger things. So, ironically, it is the small items that bring the scrutiny and the public ire.
This part of the Sun's story caught my eye in this regard:
I work in an industry where we travel a bit for business and we expense certain items. Expenses for items caused by travel are routinely covered but we are expected to, and do, apply a common sense test.....that is "would you have incurred that expense personally were you not traveling".
So, for example, coffee at Starbucks. If I take a client for a quick coffee meeting to talk over business I could (I say could because I rarely expense something that small....not worth the bother) expense that. But if I am enjoying some free time and I just pop into a SB for a cup of joe...then, no that is not expensable because it is no different than what I might do at home were I not on the business trip.
This sort of trivial expensing is particularly irksome to taxpayers as the salaries of the individuals involved are well above the average citizen who is, via their taxes, funding this venture. Yet someone making over $300k a year who happens to want a cup of tea takes the time to collect the slip of paper and then include it in their expense claim for the trip? When you see that you have a right to be very skeptical about all of the expenses and get the sense of "entitlement" that people are expressing anger towards.
