Four organizations paid about $47,000 for Gov. Asa Hutchinson and his wife to go on trips in 2016, according to a report posted Wednesday.
The private Arkansas Economic Development Foundation was the main spender, providing $32,691 for trips to Europe -- including Berlin and London -- as well as China and the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. The latter -- which uses an acronym for Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade -- is sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
"The governor, obviously, sees these trade missions and these trips abroad as very important to our focus on job creation in Arkansas," said J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Hutchinson.
"They're very important to getting the Arkansas name out there, but we also are mindful of taxpayer dollars, so that's where you see a lot of the effort to not use taxpayer dollars to ... fund these trade missions to a point."
Davis noted that several of the trips included job announcements.
For example, at the SHOT Show in January 2016, Hutchinson announced that Sig Sauer would open a manufacturing facility and create 50 jobs and that Remington Outdoor Co. would expand its plant in Lonoke and create 84 jobs.
And in October, Hutchinson told reporters that Suzhou Tianyuan Garments Co. would be the first Chinese company to manufacture clothing in the United States and would do so in Arkansas. The plant is expected to create 400 jobs in central Arkansas.
In addition to the foundation, the Republican Governors Association provided about $8,560 in travel expenses for various conferences, summits and roundtables.
The Republican Party of Arkansas provided $5,420 for various meetings, including $1,171.40 for airfare and travel expenses in June to meet Donald Trump, who was elected president in November.
And No Labels, a group that says it seeks bipartisan solutions to national problems, paid $407.10 for Hutchinson to speak in December.
According to media reports, he spoke about how states had a growing responsibility to pay for infrastructure projects after a reduction in federal spending.
State Secretary of State Mark Martin, Auditor Andrea Lea, Treasurer Dennis Milligan and Land Commissioner John Thurston reported no gifts and no nongovernmental sources of payment for trips.
The American Conference Institute, the Republican Attorneys General Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Conference of Western Attorneys General provided $18,111 worth of travel expenses for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.
Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin received one gift: two tickets to a Republican dinner in Hot Springs worth $250. He received travel payments totaling $7,420 from the Arkansas Economic Development Foundation, the Hunt Institute, Gary Sewell of El Dorado and the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association.
Sewell paid $2,000 for Griffin to attend the Great American Seafood Cookoff in New Orleans on Aug. 5-7.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, received $6,165 worth of travel expenses from four groups -- the Senate Presidents' Forum, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the State Government Affairs Council and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation.
The trips were to San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington, D.C.; Laguna, Calif.; and New Orleans.
Two groups -- the National Conference of State Legislators and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation -- paid a total of $7,199 for House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, to go on six trips to Colorado and Massachusetts.
Arkansas Supreme Court Justices Josephine Hart and Karen Baker each reported being reimbursed for travel to the Pound Civil Justice Institute in July and the Southern Regional High Courts Conference in September.
The Pound institute reimbursed Hart $805 and Baker $921 for the trip. Baker was reimbursed $1,284, and Hart $1,729, for the High Courts Conference.
Justice Rhonda Wood reported being paid $975 for instruction, course materials and meals at the Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration at New York University in July. None of the other justices reported gifts or reimbursements, though Justice Courtney Goodson's statement was not posted late Wednesday.
Information for this article was contributed by John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 02/02/2017