Ballinger’s Ag Days debt still unpaid, source says

State Sen. Bob Ballinger’s bill for advertising in the program for Green Forest’s annual Agriculture Appreciation Days remains unpaid, a source said last week, even though Ballinger’s campaign page on Facebook said the debt has been paid.

Two separate sources, each of w h o m asked not to be identified, confirmed recently that Ballinger had not paid for advertising in the program for the past three years, with one source saying Ballinger owed “around $400 or $500.”

A local resident posting on a Facebook page for Ballinger’s campaign on Wednesday, May 11, asked: “Why haven’t you paid the money you owe to the Ag Appreciation Day committee?”

The campaign page responded less than an hour later, saying: “It’s paid.”

One of the two original sources said Monday, however, that no payment had been received from Ballinger.

Ballinger did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Meanwhile, former state legislator Bryan King of Green Forest, one of Ballinger’s four Republican primary opponents for the District 28 seat in the state Senate, said Ballinger lied about King’s participation in a legislative conference held in August 2017 in Boston.

Both Ballinger, then a state representative, and King, then a state senator, attended the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit and were reimbursed by the state for their expenses. King recently criticized Ballinger for traveling out of state at taxpayers’ expense when he owed the state for unpaid income taxes.

On Ballinger’s 2018 Statement of Financial interest, filed Jan. 31, 2018, under the section designated for “Past Due Amounts Owed to Government,” Ballinger listed $1,732.09 owed to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration for “state taxes.”

“You know what? If you’re going to take trips off the taxpayers, you need to make sure your bills are paid,” King said.

Asked about the Boston trip, Ballinger noted that King also traveled to Boston at taxpayers’ expense.

“Will you be asking King if he thinks it’s appropriate that he took that same trip to Boston, never showed up to any of the meetings in Boston, all while only voting 27% of the time for the people he represents?” Ballinger said by email.

Ballinger has frequently criticized King for missing votes during his time in the state legislature, with King responding that he often chose not to vote on bills that he disagreed with.

After the Carroll County News published Ballinger’s comments on May 12, King shared photos of himself attending meetings at the Boston summit in a group text including Ballinger.

“Just wanted to clear up this absolutely blatant lie,” King wrote.

“I was there Bryan,” Ballinger responded, “I could have been wrong, you may have made 27% of the meetings.”

“I was there too, paid my taxes on time, wasn’t delinquent at anytime in office or any other time in life,” King replied. “Also paid my political ads and other bills, house payments. … You lied bob it’s that simple.”

Ballinger lost a home in Madison County to foreclosure several years ago and his annual statements of financial interest filed in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 all list past due taxes owed to the state. The statements each cover the previous calendar year.

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration issued a lien against Ballinger and his wife in November 2018 for unpaid state income taxes. A certificate of indebtedness indicated the Ballingers owed $1,732.09 for the tax period ending Dec. 31, 2017.

Ballinger, an attorney, told the Carroll County News at the time that he had not been aware of the lien. He said he and his wife had been making payments on their state tax debt and that a lien should not have been issued.

The state finance department released the lien in May 2019, writing in a letter to the Carroll County circuit clerk’s office that the debt had been satisfied.

Ballinger and his wife also were delinquent on personal property tax payments in Carroll County for four consecutive years, from 2017 to 2020. After moving to rural Johnson County in 2020, they were also delinquent on personal property taxes in that county. Carroll County records show no delinquencies on King’s personal property taxes.

At the same time that Ballinger has owed taxes to the state, he has collected more than $86,000 in per diem, mileage and other expense payments over the last three years in addition to his annual salary of $42,428. Ballinger received $32,254 for per diem, mileage and other expenses in 2019, $17,774 in 2020 and $35,975 in 2021.

King, 53, served in the state House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013, then moved to the state Senate from 2013 to 2019. King ran for re-election to the District 5 seat in the state Senate in 2018 but was defeated by Ballinger in that year’s Republican primary. Ballinger, 48, served in the state House from 2013 to 2019 before moving to the state Senate. After beating King in the 2018 Republican primary, he defeated Jim Wallace of Eureka Springs in the November 2018 general election.

Arkansas’ legislative districts were redrawn after the 2020 U.S. census. While the former District 5 included only a portion of Carroll County — which King carried handily in his 2018 primary race against Ballinger — the new District 28 includes all of Carroll County as well as all of Madison County and portions of Boone, Newton, Franklin and Johnson counties.

Other Republican candidates for the District 28 seat are Bob Largent of Harrison, state Rep. Keith Slape of Compton and Ted Walker of Huntsville. Wallace is unopposed in the Democratic primary and will face the winner of the Republican primary in November’s general election.