The Arkansas Lottery has spent more than $11,000 reimbursing employees for mileage expenses since July 1, according to the state’s transparency website.
State employees receive 42 cents for every mile they travel on state business in their personal vehicles.
Some lottery employees already have received upwards of $800 – $900 for their mileage in the past month or so.
All told, these mileage reimbursements imply that Arkansas Lottery employees have traveled more than 26,000 miles on official business since July 1.
Earlier this year our office obtained documents from the Arkansas Lottery showing that mileage reimbursements appear to go primarily to staff members who travel around the state to gas stations and other outlets where lottery tickets are sold.
The Arkansas Lottery probably could save a lot of money by having employees travel in official state vehicles instead of paying them to drive their own cars.
Unfortunately, saving money and being fiscally responsible isn’t something the Lottery Office seems interested in doing.
Photo Credit: Airtuna08 at English Wikipedia [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]
