The taxpayer-funded travel of Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is now officially none of your business, exempted from the state's 50-year-old public records act—a new law she had the pleasure of signing herself.
The law, which took effect immediately, allows the state to wall off details about the security provided the GOP governor and other constitutional officers, including who travels on the State Police airplane and the cost of individual trips…
Sanders and Republicans in the Legislature had initially pushed for more widespread exemptions to the open-records law, but backed off after facing growing criticism that it would erode government transparency.
Some of the opponents of the broader exemptions for other state agencies that had been proposed initially endorsed the legislation after it was pared down to the security measures. But it still faces criticism that it will keep the public in the dark about how taxpayer dollars are being spent.
Temporarily withholding the travel and expenses of paranoid government officials? Fair enough. Taxpayer-funded black box into which travel and related expenses can be permanently concealed without accountability? Well, the best hotels are in the worst places.
