How much is enough?

You might ask yourself that question sometimes when a star athlete turns down a lucrative contract with his old team to go to another team that’s not nearly as good.

Or when you see someone who is incredibly wealthy doing something colossally stupid or outrageous to become even wealthier.

I’m posing it today in light of Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal report that Kentucky’s own Elaine Chao had held onto her stock in Vulcan Materials Co. that she promised to divest herself of when she was confirmed as U.S. transportation secretary in 2017.

Vulcan isn’t just any company. The Birmingham-based behemoth is the nation’s largest supplier of sand, gravel and crushed stone used in road construction and, as such, relies heavily on the government agencies for road-building contracts.

Chao, the wife of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, served on Vulcan’s board of directors before President Donald Trump appointed her to lead the Transportation Cabinet, which has an $86 billion budget, much of which goes to building things like roads and airport runways.

More:Mitch McConnell on a potential 2020 Supreme Court vacancy: 'Oh, we'd fill it'

Chao quit the Vulcan board before joining the Trump administration and filed an ethics agreement that year that said she would receive cash payments in April 2018 for her “vested deferred stock units” she earned while on the board.

But the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by the same corporation that owns Fox News, reported that based on Chao’s government ethics filings and other documents, Chao accepted the deferred payment in stocks and, the most troubling part, continued to hold that Vulcan stock.

(Interestingly, in 2018 News Corp., which owns the Wall Street Journal, paid Chao $507,426 in fees and cash for deferred stock payments for her service on that company’s board of directors.)

According to the newspaper, that Vulcan stock has grown in value by about $40,000 in the last year since she was awarded the stock. Her Vulcan holdings are now worth about $400,000, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Ethics experts say that Chao’s ownership of the stock doesn’t present a legal conflict of interest, but they say it doesn’t look good to have the transportation secretary profiting from a company that does business with her cabinet — even if she does as she has promised and recuses herself from all matters involving Vulcan.

But why would we expect her to recuse on matters involving Vulcan now, after she reneged on her pledge to divest herself of Vulcan stock?

“If you look at her ethics agreement, it provides for a complete disentanglement of her interest from Vulcan Materials, and that’s what was represented to the Senate,” Walter Shaub, the former head of the federal ethics office, told the Wall Street Journal.

“For the head of the DOT to have a financial interest in an asphalt company, that is not sending a message to employees of DOT that she is making ethics a priority,” he said.

What doesn’t make sense is why Chao would do this for a measly $40,000.

U-G-L-Y:Bevin vs. Beshear race is already negative as Trump's influence looms

Sure, that sounds like a lot of money for you or me. But for Chao, it’s pocket change.

She earns $210,700 a year as a cabinet secretary. McConnell earns $193,400 per year as a Senate leader.

According to McConnell’s Senate financial disclosure statements, they have amassed between $12 million and $55 million, due in large part to her family’s international shipping business.

There is more where that came from.

Vulcan told the Wall Street Journal its policy was to make deferred payments in stock and not in cash.

Chao has been struggling to come up with an explanation for why she didn’t completely divest herself and end all entanglements with Vulcan, as her ethics agreement clearly called for her to do.

According to CNN, a transportation spokesman said “department ethics officials have been working to clarify the term ‘cash payout’ in the agreement to match what the company actually did.”

I don’t even understand what that means.

More Gerth:With his 10,000 lies, President Trump is the most dishonest politician ever

If Vulcan was hell-bent on paying Chao in company stock, she could have easily avoided this mess simply by selling off the stock immediately after she received it.

Now, she’s made a $40,000 windfall, making her just another number in an ethically challenged Trump administration that has seen cabinet secretary after high-ranking official enmeshed in scandals for self-dealing and taking advantage of taxpayers.

Just toss her name on top of the heap of current and former Trump administration officials who have soiled their names.

Scott Pruitt. Wilbur Ross. Ryan Zinke. Tom Price. Michael Flynn. Mike Mulvaney. Betsy DeVos. Steven Mnuchin. Elaine Chao.

How much is enough?

Joseph Gerth's opinion column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/josephg.