Projo Politics Blog

House Finance Chairman Steven Costantino, D-Providence, is not going to Atlanta after all.

He had been booked -- and the state had paid $425 in registration fees -- for both Costantino and Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy to go to Atlanta to attend the Dec. 10-13 National Conference of State Legislatures Fall Forum.

But Costantino, who has already begun a run of public hearings on the depth of the state's budget crisis, had second thoughts about taking the trip after the ruckus stirred up by the publication earlier this week by The Journal of the $38,271 in travel expenses run up by state lawmakers since Jan. 1.

Just last week, four lawmakers -- including lameduck Rep. John Patrick Shanley, D-South Kingstown -- took a state paid trip to Las Vegas for a gambling conference.

House spokesman Larry Berman said Costantino had made plans to attend the NCSL months ago, "but he decided this week after holding the first of a series of budget hearings that he wouldn't have time to attend the conference.

"The NCSL has been notified and will be refunding the registration for the conference to the state. The hotel and airfare were never booked,'' Berman said.

He had no immediate response when asked whether the House's most frequent traveler -- Kennedy, D-Hopkinton -- was still planning to take the Atlanta trip.

.

 Tags  Brian Patrick Kennedy John Patrick Shanley legislative trip Steven Constantino

Comments

ROBERTSALVATORE said:

ALL RE-ELECTED?????
CONSIDER, .. ON ANY LEVEL, ITS DEMOCRACTS VS REPUBLICANS. SOMETHING NEW? THE BIRTH OF "THE INDEPENDENT PARTY" BEGIN TO ENCOURAGE CANDIDATES TO SEEK PUBLIC OFFICE. END YOUR POSTED MESSAGES, WITH “INDEPENDENT” . WE THEN CAN FIND IF THERE IS ANY INTEREST IN CHANGE. A MEETING WILL BE CALLED IN APRIL 09.

Link | November 29, 2008 7:34 PM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.