Alaska, here's how to sell a plane

HARRISBURG - Maybe Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin should take a lesson from the Rendell administration on how to sell a state airplane. Pennsylvania is preparing to turn over the keys to one of its two executive planes to an Illinois company that has agreed to buy it for $1.375 million – above its appraised value and several hundred thousand more than the state paid for it 16 years ago.

Palin, the governor of Alaska, tried to win points as a reformer by declaring at last week's GOP convention that upon taking office, she put her state's jet on eBay. Turns out, she did just that, but in the end, it was sold through a broker for $2.1 million - less than the $2.7 million that Alaskan taxpayers paid for it under a past administration.

"It just goes to prove that a high-flying but inexperienced politician is no match for a down-to-earth professional when it comes to selling state planes," said Chuck Ardo, Gov. Rendell's press secretary.

Unlike Palin, state officials in Harrisburg chose not to bother with the online auction route after Rendell decided in April to sell the plane, a 1981 Beech King Air 200, in a cost-cutting move.

The state wanted to avoid eBay's commission - upward of 2 ½ percent of the sale price - so it instead advertised the plane on two aeronautical Web sites. The total cost: less than $700. It drew four bids, with the highest coming from Midwest Underground Inc., an East Moline, Ill. pipeline contractor.

Michael D. Murphy, a consultant for Midwest Underground, said the company was willing to pay a little more for the twin engine turboprop than similar ones on the market because the state had kept it in good condition.

"It's common sense that you wouldn't expect the governor to fly in anything that wasn't maintained well," he added.

Still, the sale is pending scheduled repairs that the state plans to make soon, including a set of new brakes, said Edward Myslewicz, press secretary for the Department of General Services, which handled the sale.

The state purchased the seven-seat plane in 1992 for slightly more than $1 million. There are no plans to unload the state's other plane, a nine-seat 1999 Beechcraft King Air 350.

Rendell and other state officials use the aircraft periodically when state duties in different parts of Pennsylvania require the flexibility of non-commercial air travel.....