By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The state should sell the airplane that the governor sometimes uses for official business, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Keet said today.

“We do not need an airplane that costs $4.4 million,” Keet said in a news conference, adding that state could lease a plane for much less, “and we don’t have to pay for the hanger, pilot, maintenance … and annual inspections.”

Keet faces incumbent Democrat Mike Beebe in the November general election. A spokeswoman for Beebe’s campaign said Keet was just trying to make headlines.

Keet estimated the state could get as much as $3.9 million for the Beechcraft King Air that was purchased in 2007 with end-of-the-year surplus funds.

The plane replaced a 1982 plane, purchased by the state in 1997 and used extensively by former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Keet said his position would be the same no matter what party was in office.

“It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat, I’m looking into the future and telling you what the Keet administration will do … and that is to sell the airplane and then to use a much more cost-effective method of leasing,” Keet said.

Anne Hughes, spokeswoman for Beebe’s re-election campaign, said today that Keet’s demand that the plane be sold was “just another attempt to grab headlines by Mr. Keet.”

Hughes said the plane belongs to the Arkansas State Police and that the agency “made an analysis of the most fiscally responsible solution available for law enforcement needs and for value of taxpayers’ money, and determined that a purchase was the best course of action.”