But Pound said NCSL's business support remains strong and that drug and health-care companies have participated in past conventions and are participating this week. In fact, Pfizer Inc., one of the Ferrys' clients, has continued giving $10,000 a year to NCSL's nonprofit foundation.

Major issues

Still, the dissatisfaction has gotten attention.

Stephens said before he, as the new NCSL president, appointed NCSL's chairmen of various health-care-related committees last summer, he ran the list of the proposed chairmen past pharmaceutical and health-care firm bosses to see if they had any concerns. They didn't, he said.

The direction of NCSL is a reflection of its general membership, Pound said in an interview. "We have gone out of our way to be fair" in setting the dozens of convention learning session meetings and their speakers, Pound said.

Medicaid and its drug-cost component is a major issue for states, he said. If drug and Medicaid costs continue to rise as quickly as in recent years, they will make up a quarter of states' budgets within a decade. And legislators must deal with that budget-busting issue, Pound said.

Sue Ferry said she has noticed a difference in NCSL under Stephen's tenure as president but said it will take some time to reverse the "liberal" trend.

Busy schedule

Internal politics aside, Stephens said the four-day meeting "is a working convention." He added that many government-related conventions have open afternoons "where people go to play golf" and the like. But not the NCSL convention, he said.

"You look at our agendas, and meetings go from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m."

There are social events at night. And Utah lawmakers have raised more than $800,000 from a variety of sources, including businesses and lobbyists who have issues before Utah and other state legislatures, to pay for the convention's social calendar and transportation costs. No Utah taxpayer dollars are directly paying for the convention, although a number of legislative staffers have been working on convention-related activities for upward of a year.

Utah legislative staffers have estimated that the convention will bring more than $12 million into the local economy.

A bipartisan legislative committee has been planning the convention and fund raising since last summer. Spouses, children and other guests of the legislators will have a variety of things to do while legislators are in meetings.

Contributions have come from a variety of sources:

• The Salt Lake County government is donating nearly all of the cost of the Salt Palace rental, estimated at $75,000.
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