While parents come to grips with major investment losses in a college savings program, public records show that Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' office spent Bright Start proceeds to buy a $26,000 SUV he uses as his state car.
The purchase is surfacing as the politically ambitious Giannoulias continues to face criticism for his oversight of the Bright Start investment program, which lost $85 million last year.
| Giannoulias is a friend of Obama and of Blago. He's involved with a bank bought with family money that's rumored not to be the cleanest, if you know what I mean and I think you do ... |
It's the first time since the program was launched nearly a decade ago that money from it was used to buy a state vehicle, the treasurer's office acknowledged.
Giannoulias refused to comment for this story, but his spokesman defended using Bright Start funds to buy the black 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. Scott Burnham said the SUV is not exclusively driven by Giannoulias but is part of a pool of a dozen cars used by workers to travel the state promoting treasurer's office programs, including Bright Start. "They use it just like any vehicle is used by the entire staff," Burnham said. "Bright Start is a large part of the treasurer's office, and marketing the program and Illinois residents is critical."
| What exactly does the Treasurer's office have to promote? Themselves? |
But Burnham could not provide a breakdown of how often that particular Ford Escape is used for Bright Start-related purposes and said no log is kept of how that car is used or for what reasons.
Though the SUV is registered to Illinois license plate No. 6, Burnham said there are three such vehicles with that plate and that Giannoulias drives all of them, plus his personal car, which also is a Ford Escape Hybrid.
Giannoulias' office bought the Ford Escape in October 2007, according to state records obtained by the Tribune. An identical car was purchased at the same time with funds from the Illinois Public Treasurers' Investment Pool, which allows towns and other taxing districts to pool their assets and have them invested by the treasurer's office.
Burnham said it is Giannoulias' discretion how operating money for the office's various funds are spent. He noted that the money for the SUV didn't come from parents' investments, but from a fee the firm that handles the investments pays to the treasurer's office to offset the cost of running the program. "All of the funds pick up a portion of the expenses of the treasurer's office," Burnham said. "But we're not talking about taxpayer dollars here."
| And where does the firm gets its money? ... |
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