Ethics improve for trips by Utah lawmakers

One retiring Utah state senator went to a Hawaiian conference the summer before he left office — so he wasn't around for the next general session where he could have spread knowledge he acquired among the palm trees.

In 2000, five legislators who had lost their re-election bids or were retiring went to Chicago for a legislative meeting, a collective cost to taxpayers of $7,500 for officeholders not around for the upcoming Legislature.

But now the days of legislative lame ducks flying may be over.

Of the 29 House members traveling to out-of-state conferences this summer, none is a lame duck — that is they aren't lawmakers who have already lost their re-election bids or are retiring.

The state Senate has no lame ducks in the air, either. Eleven members are going to various summer conventions — although because two members, Sens. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, are going to two conventions each, there are actually 13 taxpayer-paid trips.

Democratic Sen. Fred Fife of Salt Lake was scheduled to go to a summer convention. But after he lost his seat in the Salt Lake County Democratic Convention in April, he volunteered not to take the trip, said Ric Cantrell, chief deputy of the Senate. Bramble, who is Senate majority leader, said GOP leaders told several lame-duck senators that they could not travel out of state this summer.

The annual summer multiday conferences are: the National Conference of State Legislatures, this year in New Orleans, July 22-26 (the main group that most Utah legislators attend); Council of State Governments (Western meetings), this year in Alaska, Wednesday through Sunday; and the American Legislative Exchange Council, this year in Chicago, July 30-Aug. 3.

Considering that there are 75 House members and 29 senators, 39 percent of the House is going to the out-of-state conventions this summer. The Senate's summer travel costs equate to 45 percent of its membership.

Legislative leaders actually decided to cancel July interim committee meetings because so many lawmakers would be out of state attending the national conferences this month.

Besides attending meetings on how to run government better and lawmaker training, legislators — and their spouses, who often attend summer conferences but not at state expense — are regularly feted by local lobbyists, who gather in convention cities.