Resigning North Dakota senator led lawmakers in travel costs

BISMARCK, N.D. – A North Dakota state senator who is resigning following a report about text messages he exchanged with an inmate ran up travel expenses the past decade that are more than 14 times what lawmakers bill state taxpayers on average.

Travel records reviewed by The Associated Press show Republican Ray Holmberg has made taxpayer-funded trips to four dozen U.S. cities, China, Canada and several countries in Europe.

Holmberg was reimbursed about $126,000 for nearly 70 trips – all out of state – over the past decade.

Holmberg, who became one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers in a career that spanned 46 years, announced this month that he would resign June 1 following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges.