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R.I. treasurer speaks out against legislators' travel

2:50 PM Mon, Nov 24, 2008 | Permalink
By Katherine Gregg

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PROVIDENCE -- State Treas. Frank Caprio today labeled "unacceptable'' the recent state-paid travels by legislators to Las Vegas and other resorts and tourist meccas across the map, including the Florida Keys.

Responding in print and radio interviews to questions about the $38,271 in legislative travel reported in today's Political Scene, Caprio said Rhode Island leaders should take their cue from other states, such as Connecticut, that have adopted travel bans to reduce their own state spending.

Caprio said the amount spent may not be big "when you look at the total size of the budget,'' but a travel ban would symbolically "set the right tone.''

"Businesses and families who are having difficulty with their budgets cut out things like travel and the state should be no different,'' he said.

Caprio said he has been paying for his own state travel out of his own pocket, and has opted against using a state car for the same symbolic reasons.

Since January, the state has spent $38,271 sending members of the General Assembly to New York, New Jersey, Washington, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Orleans and California.

And just this past week, the legislature footed the bills for four of its members -- including lame-duck Rep. John Patrick Shanley -- to go Las Vegas for a four-day G2E Global Gaming Exposition that is expected to cost the state $9,829, including the $1,145 per-person registration fee, according to a summary compiled by the legislative business office.

The other lawmakers who went to Las Vegas were Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, and Senators Frank Ciccone, D-Providence, and David Bates, R-Barrington, all members of a lottery oversight committee.

Following the whirlwind Vegas trip, Bates was scheduled to join Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, for a session of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, at the Hawk's Cay Resort in Duck Key, Fla., where sessions on mortgage licensing and natural catastrophe financing would eventually yield to a glass-bottomed boat tour of Sand Reef Key.

As the national president of NCOIL, Kennedy has been among the more frequent travelers.

Another frequent flier is Sen. Leo Blais, the Coventry Republican seeking to unseat Sen. Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly, as Senate minority leader. From July 30 to Aug. 2, Blais was in Chicago for the 35th-annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which describes itself as a forum for conservative state legislators and policy advocates.

This past weekend, he was reportedly flying out to a State Leaders Policy Conference in Dana Point, Calif., and on Dec. 3, he will go to an ALEC 2008 States & Nation Policy Summit, at a total estimated cost for this year of $4,259.

Algiere took no trips.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino, D-Providence, is scheduled to take a rare out-of-state trip next month to Atlanta for a National Conference of State Legislatures forum. Asked how General Assembly leaders justified, for example, sending four legislators to Las Vegas including the lame duck Shanley, during a budget crisis, House spokesman Larry Berman said: "The state Lottery is very significant [in terms of] revenue to the state ... If they can find out what is successful in other states that would help Rhode Island, it would be a valuable experience."

Shanley has promised to write a report on ideas he brought back for raising more revenue. "If he comes up with one good idea [to] enhance revenue, it will be worth the price of the trip," Berman said.