State Auditor Les Merritt this morning said that state trips in which First Lady Mary Easley and others traveled to France, Russia and Estonia included "unreasonable and excessive expenses," including a taxpayer-funded $332 lunchtime caviar cocktail.

Taxpayers picked up hundreds of dollars in alcohol purchases, against state policy. They paid for ballet tickets, and an executive assistant to Easley billed the state $227 dollars for a linen jacket.

Merritt found that the trips to France and Russia were of questionable value to taxpayers. The audit was delayed 30 days because Merritt could not get an interview with Easley.

Easley and an assistant traveled to Paris and Compiegne, France, in May 2007. The trip was designed to celebrate a successful Monet exhibit in Raleigh that had already ended. Easley had no specific duties or obligations on the trip. One year later, a delegation of state cultural resources officials including Easley traveled to Tallin, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. In Russia, where room expenses averaged $955 a night per person, Easley and the others had one hour of official state business — a meeting with officials from the Hermitage Museum.

"Any direct benefit to the State related to the First lady's presence on the trips to France and Russia is difficult to identify," Merritt said. "For example in Russia, a simple one hour meeting with museum officials does not justify the taxpayers paying for a day-long tour of St. Petersburg plus a trip to the ballet."

An Easley spokesman said all expenses and planning arrangments were handled by the Department of Cultural Resources.

"The first lady was asked by Cultural Resources to attend and while there she did what she was asked to do by the department," said Seth Effron a spokesman for Gov. Easley. Effron declined to answer questions.

"The statement that I've given you is the statement I've given out."

A phone call to the acting head of the Cultural Resources Department was not immediately returned.

Merritt reviewed the trips after news reports in The News & Observer detailed expenses. Merritt received hotline tips that the trips were wasteful. Easley has declined requests to discuss the trips. Her husband, Gov. Mike Easley, has defended the trips, saying Europe is expensive and that just one big museum exhibit, will bring millions to the state.

Details of caviar and alcohol purchases after the jump.

Update: Post now includes response from Easley spokesman.

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N.C. Cultural Resources Secretary Libba Evans reimbursed the state last week $465 for booze bills from the trip she took with North Carolina's first lady Mary Easley to Russia and Estonia earlier this year.

State auditors caught the expense while reviewing the trip as part of a report that has yet to be released. Chief Deputy Secretary Staci Meyer said she and her staff missed the alcoholic beverage purchases because they made mistakes in translating two restaurant bills that were in Russian, Dan Kane reports.

"I took it off of some bills but not those two," Meyer said. "I missed it, and [Evans] assumed I had taken it off."

Evans did not review her bills when she returned from the trip, Meyer said. The standard practice was to turn them over to staff, who would then determine what Evans should reimburse.

Evans, who is on unpaid leave from the department attending to a personal matter, wrote a check to cover the expenses when Meyer told her of the auditors' findings.

The trip was intended to foster a relationship with museum officials in those two countries that might lead to a sharing of exhibits. But that trip and another Easley took to France for similar purposes in 2007 have drawn criticism for the tens of thousands of dollars in expenses paid for by taxpayers.

Meyer said Evans had previously paid for $647 in wine and champagne the entourage drank at a Russian restaurant. That puts the total alcohol bill at more than $1,100.

Libba Evans, head of the state cultural agency, has been on unpaid leave since May 1 — which means she wasn't on the clock when she participated in a trip to Russia and Estonia.

Evans was a member of a five-person cultural exchange trip in May to Russia and Estonia that cost taxpayers more than $56,000. The delegation also included first lady Mary Easley.

Evans, the secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources, initiated the leave to take care of "personal business," said Staci Meyer, general counsel and chief deputy for the department.

"She initiated it and we discussed it and decided that was the appropriate thing to do as she dealt with some personal business," Meyer said.

Evans had already committed to participating in the trip and she was not paid as a state employee during the trip, Meyer said.

Meyer said she could not comment on the nature of Evans' personal business.

Evans salary when she went on leave is $117,142. The figure would increase upon her return because the legislature approved a pay raise.

Meyer has been running the department. She now makes $119,000.

Gov. Mike Easley defends the costs of trips to Estonia, Russia and France by his wife. (Video by Shawn Rocco)

Laura Leslie puts Mary Easley's trip into perspective.

The WUNC reporter writes on her blog Isaac Hunter's Tavern that the $109,000 spent by the first lady on trips to Estonia, Russia and France is a drop in the state budget's bucket.

But it would be worth a lot as arts spending.

Just for context's sake, here’s a few of the House’s proposed cuts to operational program budgets in the Dept of Cultural Resources - the agency that paid the $109K bill:

Basic Grants Program – loses $42K
Grassroots Arts Program- loses $29K
NC Symphony Society – loses $11K
Lost Colony – loses $2500
NC Shakespeare Festival – loses $2500
Quiz Bowl – loses $3000
CSS Neuse – loses $1500
Maritime Museum – loses $1500
Vagabond School of Drama – loses $465
Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial – loses $500

Leslie notes that adds up to $94,000 worth of cuts to groups that employ North Carolina artists and cultural experts. Though some may get funding from other sources, she notes most will end up with a net loss from the cuts.

Mary Easley took trips to Russia, Estonia and France that cost taxpayers $109,000.

The first lady's trips were not publicly disclosed at the time, and she did not respond to a request for an interview. But expense reports and other documents indicate the trips were considered cultural exchanges to build links with officials in the countries visited.

So far, they have produced no tangible benefits.

In May 2007, Easley and an assistant traveled to Paris and Compiegne, France, to see the ambassador and visit major museums. Once there, she was chauffeured round-the-clock in a Mercedes-Benz that cost more than $27,000.

In May 2008, Easley and a delegation of state arts officials went to St. Petersburg and Tallinn, Estonia. On that trip, they saw the ballet, stayed in an $800-a-night hotel and dined at a first-class restaurant at a cost of more than $100 a person. (N&O)