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Legislators bill state $1.3 million for travel
Officials say travel benefits state
By Tom Loftus

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- State Sen. Tom Buford was one of at least seven legislators who got word recently of the state's $456 million revenue shortfall while attending a convention of lawmakers in Duck Key, Fla., at taxpayers' expense.

The convention, which dealt with insurance issues, was the 30th in less than three years for Buford, a Nicholasville Republican who is chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. State records show that the first 29 trips have cost taxpayers $43,416 in salary and expenses, more than any other legislator.

Second on the list was Senate President David Williams, who received $39,923 in salary and expenses for 21 trips and who must approve travel expenses for all senators.

Between Jan. 1, 2006, and Oct. 30, 2008, Kentucky taxpayers paid legislators a total of nearly $1.3 million in salary and expenses for 756 trips to out-of-state meetings and three major legislative gatherings in Kentucky, according to records obtained from the Legislative Research Commission through an open records request.

Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute, a free-market think tank that favors smaller government, said so many trips are wasteful.

"One or two trips a year (per legislator) would be fine," Waters said. "But if legislators who travel so much are finding solutions to the tough issues on these trips, we haven't seen results of it yet."

Of Buford's 30 trips, 27 were out of state to legislative meetings in such places as San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Phoenix, New York, Boston, Chicago and California's Napa Valley.

In an interview, he defended the value of legislators attending such conferences, but acknowledged he might have overdone it.

"These things are kind of like prunes. One may not be enough, and 30 are probably too many," he said. "But it's important that when these meetings take place around the nation that we have a representative there. Policies and model legislation are developed."

25 account for half

The records obtained by The Courier-Journal show that the 25 legislators who do the most traveling accounted for about half of the nearly $1.3 million total during the period examined. Thirty of the 170 lawmakers who served during the period took no out-of-state trips; another 16 went only to in-state meetings.

Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, attended conventions in Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Chicago in July, even though he was a lame duck who had cast his final vote in the Senate.

The three trips lasted 19 days and cost taxpayers $3,512 in salary, plus $5,200 for expenses.

In an interview after an interim committee meeting in Frankfort last week, Roeding said he can contribute until his term ends.

"I learn more at each one of those meetings, I learn more and bring that back here to the state of Kentucky. I'm still the senator until Dec. 31," he said.

There is no travel budget for the legislative branch. But senators who want to travel must get approval from Williams, R-Burkesville, before per-day salary and expenses will be paid. House members need approval from House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green.

On approved trips, legislators are paid their per day pay ($184.88 this year) for days they attend and are reimbursed for actual expenses, although some expenses are paid by the organization holding the event.

Through the first nine months of this year the cost of legislative travel is down about $36,000 compared to the first nine months of 2007, but up about $35,000 above the first nine months of 2006.

Tax increase possible

On Nov. 21 the group of economists that forecasts state revenue reported that, because of the downturn in the economy, state revenue will fall $456 million short of the revenue required by the budget in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Gov. Steve Beshear said he will order painful spending cuts and perhaps propose a tax increase to balance the budget.

Richards, who's attended 17 conferences at a cost of $25,127 according to the records, said he has talked to members about limiting travel and has turned down a few requests. Records show that he has approved no trips for the House's lame ducks but also has not established any written policy to reduce travel.

Williams said he has taken no action to reduce travel, but added, "As these times are tightening up, it could very well be that we're going to have to look at travel."

The legislature has the money to allow frequent travel because, although lawmakers cut many areas within the state budget they passed early this year, they increased their own by 7 percent.

Buford said he has gone to so many conventions partly because he heads the Senate's Banking and Insurance Committee and partly because he has a leadership role with some of the groups that hold the conferences.

"Most trips are valuable. After a meeting you talk to legislators from other states, you learn what worked and what blew up in their face. You don't get that from reading a newspaper," Buford said.

Learning experience

Williams and Richards also say the trips are highly valuable to members, allowing them to learn of experiences in other states and hear from national experts on important issues such as education and the economy.

Williams said he approved Roeding's trips because Roeding has been very active with the national legislative groups. He said he particularly wanted to encourage participation at the National Council of State Legislatures convention in New Orleans because Kentucky will be the host for the group's meeting in 2010.

Williams said he did not know Roeding planned to stay seven days (an unusually long trip for a legislator, records show) at two of the conventions.

"If I had known in advance that Dick Roeding was going to turn in seven days for each one of those, would I have encouraged him not to? Yes," Williams said.

Williams and Richards emphasized that Kentucky's participation in such organizations has paid off in real terms because Kentucky has been able to bring the Southern Legislative Conference to Louisville in 2006, a Council of State Governments conference to Lexington this year, and the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting to Louisville in 2010.

"The effort that I have made to make sure that our members participate, both Republicans and Democrats, will pay back a hundredfold because of the conferences that we have been able to recruit," Williams said.

Records show the most frequent traveler in the House is Rep. Bob Damron, a Nicholasville Democrat whose attendance at 24 meetings and conventions since Jan. 1, 2006, cost taxpayers $38,166.

Damron is chairman of the Council of State Governments' Finance Committee and is president-elect of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (the group that held its convention in Duck Key Nov. 19 to 23) and heads the legislative committee of a group affiliated with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

"I work really hard at those meetings. I represent Kentucky at those meetings. I'm a national officer with some of these organizations, and I think Kentucky gets more than its money's worth when I attend these things," Damron said. "I bring a great deal of knowledge back to the commonwealth."

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.