LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission still hasn’t spent most of the $32 million it has picked up by assigning natural gas drilling rights on land it manages.
The agency has about $29 million in the bank, and it has earned about $1.5 million in interest on the sum. About $14 million will remain in the bank until 2014, which is the earliest date that the commission can pay off a bond issue it used for land acquisition. The commission is paying $764,000 per year in interest on that bond.
The agency says it is moving out of a land acquisition phase and into a period of spending to improve facilities on Game and Fish Commission land.