Are taxpayers driving Ms Daisy Harper Brown?

The recent disclosure by the Dallas Morning News of Representative Linda Harper Brown's use of a $50,000 Mercedes could raise a lot more questions.

Harper-Brown, R-Irving, requested and received State Official license plates for a 2010 Mercedes E550 sedan and 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe. But Durable Enterprises Equipment Ltd. owns the vehicles. Harper-Brown’s husband, William E. Brown III, said the cars are compensation for accounting work he does for the owner of Durable and that he lets his wife drive the Mercedes. 

Let's start with this question: "If the Mercedes didn't belong to the Representative, why is she being paid for mileage from the Comptrollers Office?"

According to records from the Texas Comptroller's office Representative Brown was paid over $13,000 for "7102 TRAV IN-STATE MILEAGE" from 2008-2010. This would amount to over 26,000 miles of usage of her own privately owned vehicle at 50 cents per mile, the standard government rate. But according to the article, this Mercedes is not her privately owned vehicle (POV). So how can she request and be paid for mileage for a POV?

Usually this payment is to cover the cost of maintenance, gasoline, insurance, and general use of your POV. Maybe Brown owns another car for legislative purposes which qualifies her for mileage payments, although her official state license plates are on the Mercedes. Also, this mileage may have been for a car prior to the 2010 Mercedes. Who knows?

Second question: Who else in the State Legislature is doing the same thing? Who bought a vehicle with campaign donations then filed with the Comptrollers office for the mileage of a vehicle they didn't own?

Representative Harper-Brown has a lot of explaining to do and may have started a round of inquiries about her fellow lawmakers.