Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Senate President Pro Tem John Kennedy on Monday called for an investigation into how taxpayers wound up paying for a European trip for their predecessors two months before they left office.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday that just before their terms ended, then-Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller led a 14-person delegation to Germany and England.
Duncan didn’t run for reelection and Miller lost in the Republican lieutenant governor’s primary to Jones. By the time the mid-November trip took place, voters had already selected their replacements.
There is no way for taxpayers to know how much the weeklong trip cost unless the General Assembly agrees to release the information.
Legislative lawyers rejected requests from the AJC to disclose how much state money was spent on the trip, citing the fact that the General Assembly exempted itself from the Open Records Act that other government officials must follow.
The group — which included two state-funded security staffers and other taxpayer-funded employees — made the trip from Nov. 12 to 19 to the German cities of Munich and Stuttgart and then London as part of a Senate Study Committee on Economic Development and International Relations. The legislation creating the committee was filed and passed by the Georgia Senate at the end of the 2022 session, and the panel was chaired by Miller.
“The recent AJC article about last fall’s study committee raises serious concerns about the use and purpose of Senate administrative funds in paying for travel expenses associated with this study committee,” Jones and Kennedy said in a joint statement. “Recent developments have brought to light that proper protocol may not have been followed in the budget approval process for this trip.
“We believe that transparency and ensuring that any travel paid using taxpayer dollars should have a direct connection to the legislature or bringing businesses and work into Georgia. We are taking this issue very seriously and our offices will investigate this process and ensure the most transparency for hardworking Georgians.”
Some Democrats in the Senate backed Jones’ and Kennedy’s move.
Late in the 2022 session, the Senate added $80,000 to the lieutenant governor’s office budget and $686,000 to the Georgia Senate budget, calling it an increase “for legislative operations,” according to Senate budget tracking sheets. No further explanation was provided.
Kennedy, R-Macon, was a member of the Senate leadership team at the time.
The AJC reviewed 1,300 pages of emails received through an Open Records Act request from the Department of Economic Development. The documents showed the trip was in the works for months, with emails repeatedly going back and forth between Duncan’s staffers and those helping to facilitate the effort in Germany and the United Kingdom, including state of Georgia economic development officials in those countries.
According to a report compiled by Duncan’s office and signed by Miller, the group met with government and business officials, toured company headquarters, studios, training schools and other facilities, and attended receptions.
Among the 14 people listed as attending, according to emails, were Duncan, Miller, states Sens. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, Emanuel Jones, D-Ellenwood, Sonya Halpern, D-Atlanta, and Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, two members of Duncan’s security detail and Andrew Allison, the head of the Senate Press Office who left state government a little more than a month later for another job. Dixon, Jones, Halpern and Rahman all returned to the Senate this year.
A review of emails and schedules suggests transportation for the group alone almost certainly cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The General Assembly has a taxpayer-funded budget this year of roughly $53 million.
The legislative exemption from the Open Records Act means lawmakers give an accounting only when they wish to do so. Jones, the Democratic senator who took part in the trip, said he supports releasing the information.
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