State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s office rang up a $44,000 travel bill in just 18 months by jetting to various far-flung conferences, including a Big Easy confab where she and an entourage of seven staffers got to dine in the French Quarter and stay at a “luxurious” waterside hotel.

The tab is close to double or more what any of the state’s other three independent constitutional officers spent on conferences and other travel in the same time, according to records the Herald obtained, and is largely fueled by the cadre of Treasury employees who followed Goldberg.

Over five out-of-state trips, a total of 19 staffers traveled with the Brookline Democrat, including the seven assistant and deputy treasurers, directors and Goldberg’s chief of staff who jetted to a National Association of State Treasurers symposium in New Orleans last June.

By comparison, Attorney General Maura Healey and Auditor Suzanne Bump also traveled with seven staff members — but over five and four multiple-day conferences, respectively.

Their costs are also dwarfed by the $43,386 spent by Goldberg’s office between fall 2015 and this spring, including $36,454 for her staff to hit conventions in locations such as Seattle, Nashville and Washington, D.C.

“It’s partly disturbing given the expense involved in taking so many people,” said David Tuerck, president of the Beacon Hill Institute. “But it’s also disturbing that she pretty much cleaned out her key people, presumably at a time that state business still needed to get done,”

In the Big Easy, Goldberg and her staff stayed at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, billed on the conference’s website as a “luxurious” hotel steps away from the famous French Quarter, where they also got comped dinner at one of five restaurants.

Goldberg’s office did not make her available for an interview for this story. But they insist the busy travel is justified because her office is a “national leader” on topics such as financial literacy, making her deputies a draw to speak at national meetings. Goldberg and her staff all served as panelists or moderators at some point during the three-day New Orleans event.

The treasurer also pays for her own air travel, in addition to not using a state vehicle for local travel, her aides noted.

“These national conferences are designed for treasurers and professional staff from across the country to share information and learn best practices for the advancement of essential state operations,” spokeswoman Chandra Allard said.

But Tuerck countered that presenting at a conference doesn’t necessarily justify the cost. “(NAST) ought to pay the expense, if you’re in fact doing a service for the organization,” he said.

Bump, for example, was a presenter at the Association of Government Accountants’ 2015 national conference in Albuquerque, N.M., where, according to her office, the organization covered the cost of flights, hotel and registration fees for both the auditor and her chief of staff.

A Goldberg aide said NAST has never offered to comp her office.

The other constitutional officers spent far less, even though they often traveled for conferences:

•?Healey racked up $22,020, including one- day trips and the five conferences where she brought staff. Two included stays for her and staff at The Ritz-Carlton, but her office said that was because the conference was located there.

•?Records from Bump’s office showed her spending $16,395 between her and her staff to travel to a handful of conferences, plus her own in-state trips. Employees who traveled either presented at the conference or attended to get required continuing professional education, according to her office.

•?Secretary of State William Galvin took just two one-day trips to Washington, and neither time brought staff, spending $1,082.