By Nic Horton | The Arkansas Project

Nic Horton

LITTLE ROCK — On Monday, I wrote about the excessive meetings of the Arkansas House’s State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee.

Some of you assumed I was making a mountain out of a molehill, so I decided to dig deeper.

The House State Agencies Committee has cost taxpayers $32,702.06 so far this year — and several more meetings are still scheduled — according to the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research.

The committee’s entire cost for last year was $14,697.65.

These costs do not account for additional staff travel costs that are incurred every time the committee meets outside of Little Rock — like this weekend, when it will meet twice in Fayetteville.

So perhaps these figures add some weight to the argument that the committee is meeting much more frequently than in the past and it is costing taxpayers dearly.