The Latest on Zell Miller

I love it when a Republican gets caught in a scandal. Check out this article that appeared in Wednesday's edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution...

Zell Miller to return $113,000 to state

The Associated Press
Published on: 07/13/05

Zell Miller announced Wednesday that he plans to send a check for $112,956 plus interest to the state of Georgia to resolve a dust-up over how much money he got from the state treasury when he was governor.

At issue was the $40,000-a-year allowance that the state gives its governors to offset entertainment and hospitality costs at the executive mansion. A recent report by Atlanta's WSB-TV accused the notoriously frugal Miller of pocketing more than $60,000 that he did not spend on entertaining legislators, business leaders and assorted dignitaries when he was Georgia's governor from 1991 to 1999.

The practice appears to be perfectly legal. A 1969 opinion by the state's attorney general held that money paid to state officials for expenses "are part of such official's gross income and taxable to the extent they are not used for such business purposes."

In a statement released Wednesday, Miller said he followed the practice of four former governors — Lester Maddox, Jimmy Carter, George Busbee and Joe Frank Harris — and was guided by the 1969 attorney general's opinion in treating unused portions of the allowance as income and paying tax on it.

"I strictly obeyed the law," said Miller, a Democrat who retired this year from the U.S. Senate. "In my heart of hearts, I know I did nothing wrong. But I cannot live with some folks thinking I have taxpayers' money I should not have."