In case political expense scandals have been off your radar for a while, B.C. Speaker of the House Linda Reid is here to help.

Only this time, she’s not apologizing for a taxpayer-funded $5,500 first-class plane ticket to South Africa for her husband, but sticking by $120,000 in various expenses she’s racked up.

Around $48,000 went to a customized touch-screen computer at her throne in the legislature.

Another $13,000 went to converting the legislature’s library to an MLA lounge with flat-screen TVs, a display case for food items and wheelchair access.

Maybe all of these things are necessary, but is it necessary for them to come from the pockets of public coffers?

Although I’m sure Reid’s critics understand that renovations to make an office wheelchair-accessible are a reasonable expense, things such as flat screen TVs and a food display case for an MLA-only lounge are more like perks.

As much as us regular folk can appreciate that maintaining a network of parliamentary buildings and constituency offices throughout the province is a pricey endeavour, hopefully she can sympathize with the frustration British Columbians might feel given such spending while provincial ministries are slashing their budgets left and right.

Since the expenses surfaced in March, Reid has mostly been mum. The RCMP investigated the expense claims in the spring, and finding Reid committed no criminal acts, the federal police service has now handed off the file to the Ontario Provincial Police to review their investigation.

Reid is no political rookie, having served six terms as Liberal MLA of Richmond East. As the Speaker of the House, she was elected in a secret ballot by other MLAs (except cabinet ministers) at the beginning of the parliamentary session. Her role as the Speaker is to enforce the rules and order of the legislature while maintaining legislative buildings’ amenities.

It’s more than a little ironic that the Speaker of the House is under fire for questionable expenses when she is also the one tasked with approving salaries and expenses of B.C.’s MLAs.

Other politicians are backing Reid over the expenses, giving her props for laying out the money she’s spending and what she’s spending it on, while also maintaining citizens have the right to question the expenses.

It would be a wiser move for Reid to lead by example in a time of fiscal frugality, but the threshold of acceptability for various expenses varies with every person.

Reid did apologize and repay her husband’s $5,500 first-class trip to South Africa, but she doesn’t appear to be backing down on these latest expenses.

To be honest, $6,000 in new drapes for the media scrum area doesn’t sound critical to the functioning of B.C.’s political machine.

Even if there is no actual corruption or no-doubt-about-it squandering of tax dollars going on here, it’s the perception that some squandering has gone on that really matters.

Of course, in life, you can never please everyone and there will always be those who will choose to see squandering where most reasonable people wouldn’t, from those with some kind of natural distrust for authority to others with outlandish conspiracy theories.

But the bottom line is that people don’t trust their politicians when their politicians’ bottom lines look askew.