Board trip costing taxpayers $11,457

Hotel costs, at the state rate of $78 a night, totaled $3,358, compared to $272 when they meet in the capital city, associate superintendent Patrick Ogden reported.

Meals at the state per-diem rate cost $1,435, compared to $319 in Salt Lake City. While costs include dinner with the local Washington Board of Education, some expenses will be picked up by guests, Ogden said.

Most state board members live between Logan and Utah County and can make day trips for monthly meetings.

The State Board of Regents also travels to different colleges and universities statewide throughout the year for its meetings, for the same reasons Burningham cites. Its April meeting in St. George cost about $9,600, not counting $2,610 for attending regents' $90-a-day pay, the Utah System of Higher Education reported. Salt Lake meetings are estimated to cost about $6,500 without counting daily pay (it's $9,700 with daily pay).

Public officials' field trips piqued public interest in recent weeks when the Salt Lake County Council paid $25,000 of a $100,000 price tag to give Utah legislators a one-day bus tour of its digs. The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and private entities picked up the rest of the tab.

The other leg of the legislative field trip, to neighboring Davis County, cost about $11,500.

The state also kicked in $960 for hotel rooms for 12 lawmakers needing them, plus lawmakers' mileage reimbursement of 48.5 cents a mile for the some 75 lawmakers attending, House and Senate staff reported. That's not counting legislators' $130-a-day salary.

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