Gifts disclosed in Hester filing
Senator reports nearly $4,000 in event, travel costs paid
On his annual financial disclosure report, Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, reported receiving nearly $4,000 in gifts, including hotel and lodging for conferences in Cancun and Toronto, and air transportation to the southern border in 2023.
According to Hester’s 2023 statement of financial interest, the Alliance Defending Freedom provided hotel and lodging valued at $1,462.37 for a legislative leadership summit Oct. 23, the Senate Presidents Forum provided hotel and lodging valued at $1,926.67 for its 2023 summer forum June 22, and Alex Lieblong of Conway provided air transport valued at $590 to Del Rio, Texas on July 23.
Hester said Tuesday he used campaign funds to pay for his flights to Cancun and Toronto.
The Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom is the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights, according to its website.
Hester said Tuesday the Alliance Defending Forum legislative leadership summit was held in Cancun for state House and Senate leaders from across the nation, and Arkansas House Speaker Pro Tempore Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, also attended the summit.
“There was meetings throughout the entire day where we listened to [officials from] other states talk about what they have done, clearly mostly regarding social issues, and it was encouraging to me because almost every issue they were bringing up Arkansas was at the top or leading the pack in any of the issues that is considered a social issue today,” Hester said in an interview.
Hester said “we talked about gender in athletics, what is going on with that issue, [and] we talked about the pending abortion stuff coming on post Roe v. Wade [U.S. Supreme Court ruling],” at length.
Among other things, the Alliance Defending Freedom backed legislation that then-Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law in 2021 that allows students and schools to take legal action if they are deprived of an athletic opportunity or otherwise harmed as a result of a kindergarten-through-12th grade school or higher education institution not maintaining separate teams for female students.
The Alliance Defending Freedom also backed a bill that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in 2023 to require a parent or guardian to give written permission before a public school employee may address students by their preferred pronoun or name. The law also bars teachers and other school officials from using a pronoun that is “inconsistent with the unemancipated minor’s or student’s biological sex” without such permission.
Hester said the Senate Presidents Forum’s summer forum was held in Toronto, and the main focus of the forum was the need for affordable housing.
“It is not just a United States problem, it’s a North America problem,” he said.
He said officials at the forum “talked a lot about regulation because regulation is one of the most harmful things when it comes to affordable housing,” and what other states are doing to provide affordable housing.
Besides Hester, Sanders and House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, also reported on their annual financial disclosure reports about receiving air transportation from Lieblong to the southern border July 23. Lieblong, of Conway, is chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission.
Hester filed his annual financial disclosure with the secretary of state’s office Monday, after the Jan. 31 deadline for state officials to file their reports.
“I take responsibility” for filing his report late, he said Tuesday.
On their annual financial disclosure reports, state officials are required to list each nongovernmental source of payment for their expenses for food, lodging or travel which bears a relationship to their office when they appear in their official capacity and the expenses incurred exceed $150. State officials also are required to list the source, date, description and a reasonable estimate of the fair market value of each gift of more than $100 received by them or their spouse, and each gift of more than $250 received by their dependent children.
On his report for 2023, Eubanks reported the Alliance Defending Freedom paid for $2,690.61 in lodging, food and airfare for him Oct. 23, and the National Conference for State Legislatures (NSCL) paid $3,804 for food, lodging, and airfare June 24.
The Alliance Defending Freedom paid for him to attend a conference in Cancun, and National Conference for State Legislatures helped for expenses for an legislative tour of Israel, he said. The Arkansas House of Representatives also paid $1,795.04 for lodging, meal, incidental and transportation expenses for him June 23 and 24 and on July 1 and 2 for the NSCL Israel legislative study tour, according to House records.
Eubanks said Tuesday 16 legislators from various states attended the educational trip during the third week of June to Israel, during which Israeli officials tried to establish better relations between the states and Israel. Israel also wants to increase economic cooperation between Israel and Arkansas, he said.
“It was an opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.
Among other things, Eubanks said the Iron Dome is “an incredible defense system,” and he met with members of Israel’s Knesset and Israel foreign ministry officials, and toured the northern border of Israel.
In his report filed with the secretary of state’s office Jan. 11, Eubanks also reported the National Conference of State Legislatures paid $2,446.16 in lodging, travel and airfare expenses Sept. 20, and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation paid $1,136.98 in food, lodging and airfare expenses Oct. 5.
The Arkansas House of Representatives paid $304.07 for certain expenses for Eubanks to attend a NCSL legislative leaders symposium in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, from Sept. 19-Sept. 25, according to state House records.
Eubanks said he met with state government officials in Brazil, and learned how officials in Brazil function compared to officials in Arkansas.