DENVER -- As Gov. Bill Ritter was looking to slash the budget because of the economic downturn, he and nine other state employees spent more than $78,000 for a trip to Asia late last year, a CALL7 investigation found.

During the trip, Ritter and two other top state officials flew business class on state money, paying $6,500 per ticket while other staffers flew in coach for $4,000 cheaper, documents show.

"It would appear that this is above and beyond what was necessary for a trade delegation of this type," said state Sen. Ted Harvey, a Highlands Ranch Republican who sits on the appropriation and business affairs and labor committees.

Ritter, in an interview Thursday, said the Nov. 15-25 Asia Economic Mission was necessary even in tough economic times because it will bring jobs and a possible direct flight from Denver to Tokyo. He said business class was necessary because the state employees had to be rested to do business on the trip.

"We asked the question whether we should not go on the trip once the market had (crashed)," Ritter told CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski. "The answer that I provided, along with the people of my team, is this is important for us to still be aggressive on economic development."

While Ritter said he would not change a thing about the way he handled this trip, top staff knew there might be consternation about spending as the state is slashing its budget.

In Nov. 7 e-mail exchange, Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer wanted to make sure they could compare the trip to ones former Gov. Bill Owens took in bad economic times.

"(W)e need a pretty solid accounting of how much the trip will cost, who is paying and what sort of discounts we are getting, and if we can compare this trip to Asia trip (s) that Owens did," Dreyer wrote.

The actual cost of the trip for state employees was $112,000 but about $34,000 was paid for by private donors.

While the documents of Owens trips no longer exist in state archives, sources familiar with the trips said Owens never used state money for business class travel on long trips. Owens sometimes did receive free upgrades to business class, which would now be prohibited under state ethics Amendment 41.

CALL7 Investigators have spent months looking through boxes of documents and contacting sources about the trip and 7NEWS will report new information about the trade mission in future reports on 7NEWS and on TheDenverChannel.com.