The state has already cut $1.2 billion from its budget.

Essential services like Medicaid and education are suffering and more deep cuts are on the way.

There is one thing that costs taxpayers millions that is not on the chopping block and that are the state airplanes.

With the economy in the toilet, Contact 13 Chief investigator Darcy Spears looks at why state employees keep taking to the skies.

If we told you would have to pay as much as $760 to fly between Las Vegas and Reno, you would probably say that is crazy.

In fact, you might not even be able to find an in-state flight that costs that much, but look no further than our state airplane.

Nevada taxpayers are paying an estimated $760 for each round-trip this year, every time a state employee takes a trip on our state plane.

"You can fly commercial to Paris or London or Berlin or Amsterdam or Reykjavik, Iceland or Rio De Janeiro for roughly the same cost," explained Andy Matthews.

This year, taxpayers will spend just over a million dollars for the state's two airplanes, a 10-passenger Cessna citation for state workers and executives, and a 6-seat commander turbo prop used more for aerial photography and mapping.

The planes cost taxpayers almost $6 million from 2000-2008.

"If there is an earthquake in wells, we are there. If the virgin river floods, we are there," said Robert Chisel. 

When the dairy commission has a meeting in Elko, they are there too.

Contact 13 learned the biggest user of this high flying transportation is the state Department of Transportation.

"Unfortunately, in our business with roads, a lot of it requires hands-on and being at the site. We do not have enough staff to have specialized employees in every area of the state," said Robert Chisel from NDOT. 

Over the last year and a half, NDOT director Susan Martinovich has been the number one user in the state with 44 flights.

NDOT says Governor Jim Gibbons directed her to spend more time in Las Vegas.

She was not made available for an interview with Action News and neither was the governor, who has the second highest user with 39 flights in the same time period.

"They are thinking, we have got a state plane, we might as well use it," said Andy Matthews.

Andy Matthews is with the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan taxpayer watchdog group.

"And we understand that state officials need to travel and that's going to be part of their responsibility but we need to be smart about it," said Andy Matthews.

We will put more than $300,000 into the planes gas tanks this year and spend over half a million on maintenance.

"Well, this year is somewhat of an anomaly, 2008, we had two major repairs that were done," said Chisel.

What the assistant director did not say was the reason behind one of those repairs.

Contact 13 learned a state pilot was fired for it, but Chisel never mentioned that during our interview.

According to a state document, an intern flying the citation pushed the throttle beyond its limits, flying too fast and damaging the engine.

The supervising state pilot failed to report that before the plane made three more flights with passengers aboard, "endangering many people's lives," and costing taxpayers a ton.

The state's main passenger plane does make occasional trips to rural parts of the state, but more than 80% of the time, it is going back and forth between Reno and Las Vegas.

So why not fly commercial? We could log on to Southwest.com right now and get a last-minute flight to Reno for under $300. Remember, Contact 13 estimated the state's cost this year to be around $760 per trip.

"And our cost savings are in employee time and other travel expenses such as parking at the airport, such as per diem, additional per diem that we would have to put out if they were to fly commercial as opposed to using the state airplane," said Chisel.

NDOT does fly commercial quite a bit.

On top of what taxpayers are spending for the state planes, NDOT billed us $755,000 for commercial air travel from 2007-2008.

"I think it is irresponsibility that probably stems from indifference. There is not a lot of incentive within government, unfortunately, to be careful," said Matthews.

"Can we tell the taxpayers there has never been waste in this area," asked Chief Investigator Darcy Spears.

"You know, everybody's opinion of waste is different. A state the size of Nevada with 110,000 square miles, I cannot imagine us not having aircraft available to move people and goods around at a moment's notice. It is very important for the citizens of the state," said Chisel. 

The state planes usually have to fly away just to be fixed.

Our planes go to California or Arizona because NDOT says there are no Nevada companies to provide all we need in maintenance and repair.

You might have heard during the Presidential campaign about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin selling a state plane to save taxpayer money.

NDOT says Palin sold a plane dedicated to the Governor's office, but kept as many as 11 other state planes.

Keep it tuned to Channel 13 Action News.