Family graduations, campaign fundraisers and a trip that ended in a lawmaker “ghost voting” in a historic impeachment are some of the questionable flights KHOU 11 Investigates found after digging through hundreds of Texas Department of Transportation travel logs and social media posts.
TxDOT owns four executive-style jets that are supposed to be used only for official state business, but records reveal some lawmakers may have used the perk for their own personal or political gain.
“A public official should serve the public interest,” University of Houston professor Dan Engster said. “The main concern is that you would want just greater transparency to the public.”
Take Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont. He hopped on a TxDOT private jet in September 2022 and listed the purpose of the flight as “Conference-Tribune” in Austin, but that wasn’t the full story.
Phelan spoke at the Tribune Festival in Austin but he didn't return home to Beaumont when the flight left Austin. Instead, he flew across the state to Lubbock, where he attended a football game -- his alma mater UT took on Texas Tech.
“Beautiful day in Lubbock for #WreckEm vs #HookEm,” Phelan wrote on a Facebook post with gameday photos. Other posts showed him wearing a UT visor and on the field alongside Red Raiders fans.
