  urlLink Arkansas Democrat-Gazette :: Arkansas News Some of our term-limited legislators who have terms ending in the next 5 months are taking advantage of their positions by going on paid conferences to places like Alaska and Seattle. Paid for, of course, by Arkansas tax payers, who have recently sustained the highest tax hike ever experienced in the state. Four term-limited Arkansas legislators who’ve attended recent conferences in either Salt Lake City or Seattle at state expense say they plan to attend another conference at state expense in Anchorage, Alaska, in September. They contend that Arkansas taxpayers benefit from their participation at the conferences. More legislators could end up going.
Three other term-limited legislators call term-limited legislators’ participation in these conferences a waste of taxpayers’ money. And a legislative candidate noted that this is happening as Arkansans are paying a $380 million-a-year tax increase enacted by the Legislature for the benefit of public schools. The tax increase came in response to a 2002 state Supreme Court ruling that Arkansas’ public school funding was inadequate, inequitable and unconstitutional. 
