This is absolutely infuriating. Wake County’s recycling program manager has reportedly been fired following an investigation into travel expenses during his four-year tenure with the county. Among his trips: a whale-watching cruise in Maine. Disney World was also a favorite: four trips to the Magic Kingdom for this guy. County Manager David Cooke is appropriately angry. From the News & Observer story:

Five employees Wittig supervised also went on some outings, which included nights at a Las Vegas casino hotel and a visit to Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser.

Collectively, the government workers charged $161,233 in travel costs and other expenses to credit cards issued by Wake County and paid for with public money. County officials would not say whether any of the expenses were merited, calling the issue a personnel matter.

“This just pains me and makes me mad,” said County Manager David Cooke. “I can’t defend anything they did. I’m not going to try to defend the trips. I’m not going to defend the purchases. To me, it was blatantly inappropriate.”

Wittig, 37, was paid $61,190 a year to build what Cooke once called a world-class environmental education program. Wittig said Monday night that the trips and purchases were legitimate. No taxpayer money was involved, he said, because solid waste operations are paid for with fees collected from county landfills.

“There was a business purpose for everything I did,” Wittig said.

It turns out there are 535 credit cards used by Wake County employees. Last year they charged $6 million to them. Cooke says the cards have been canceled, but get this (emphasis is mine):

The employees charged nearly $6 million on the cards last year and Cooke said officials would perform spot checks on some of that spending, though no formal audit is planned.

Meantime, Wake County residents are facing a property tax hike, approved last week:

The $984 million county budget approved Monday would set the county’s tax rate at 53.4 cents per $100 of property value. Most of the 2.5-cent increase stems from bond spending for schools and other capital projects approved by voters.

The increase would raise the tax bill for a $250,000 house by $62.50 annually, not including the increase many homeowners will face as a result of last year’s revaluation.