ATLANTA (AP) - Records show that Georgia's state schools superintendent has been collecting a state car allowance worth more than $7,000 a year -- even though the state stopped offering the allowance to officials several years before he took office.
Records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also show that state School Superintendent John Barge in 2012 regularly billed drives to and from his home in northwest Georgia as business travel.
The Journal-Constitution reports that billing taxpayers for those drives is a practice the state's top accountant said is "inconsistent with IRS guidelines."
Barge said he was unaware that state budget officials had eliminated the vehicle allowance, which adds $587 a month to his state paycheck of more than $130,000 a year. Barge said he believed it was part of his salary package.
