State Sen. Angela Monson

Budget crunch cuts Oklahoma attendance at NCSL

05-03-2003

By Ron Jenkins
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ State Sen. Angela Monson, D-Oklahoma City, will preside this summer when the National Conference of State Legislatures convenes in San Francisco.

She may not have much company from her home state.

The July event usually draws dozens of state legislators and staffers, but the Oklahoma budget crunch has led to hiring and travel freezes.

House Speaker Larry Adair, D-Stilwell, issued a memo in October warning the 101 House members and staff of the travel and hiring freeze and other cost-cutting steps.

Nothing has changed to allow the freeze to be lifted, even for the NCSL meeting, says Adair.

"Anyone going to the NCSL are going to be expected to pay their own way, and that includes me," the speaker said.

He said it was unfortunate because the NCSL meeting allows lawmakers to obtain ideas on a broad range of subjects important to Oklahoma.

Adair said he will attend the meeting at his own expense. He has been appointed by Monson to discuss transportation issues at the meeting.

Before his election as speaker three years ago, Adair was chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

This year's NCSL meeting is advertised by the Denver-based organization as "the only meeting that provides state legislatures with the experts, the strategies and the resources to find solutions to the
difficult choices caused by the national recession.

"For nearly 30 years, legislators, legislative staff and policy-makers turn the ideas they discover at the NCSL's annual meeting into budget-saving policies for their state. This year, the stakes are
higher and the challenges more difficult."

According to a NCSL report issued last week, states still faced closing a $21.5 billion budget gap with only two months left in most fiscal years.

Larry Warden, House administrator, said staffers have found NCSL meetings to be "very beneficial" because states have common problems and varied ideas on solving them.

This year's meeting, he said, will likely allow for "a good exchange of information on how to get through these tough times."

In Oklahoma, lawmakers have been cutting budgets by hundreds of millions of dollars over two fiscal years, resorting to raiding pension funds this year to ease a $700 million budget gap for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

One official estimates it could easily cost $100,000 to send interested Oklahoma legislators and staffers to San Francisco, a favorite destination point for tourists.

Last year was an election year, when out-of-state travel is typically limited, but the House still paid out $41,000 to legislators and staff for travel expenses and registration fees associated with the
NCSL's July convention in Denver.

In 2001, it cost more than $72,000 to send House members and employees to the organization's meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

The cost for senators and Senate staffers was about $50,000 in 2001 and $46,000 last year.

Adair said there is no way he can justify expenditures for the San Francisco trip when the Legislature is tapping pension funds and looking at cutting services to the elderly.

In the Senate, staff attendance at the NCSL also has been nixed by a travel ban.

No final decision, however, has been made on paying the travel costs of senators for the next fiscal year, said Robin Maxey, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Cal Hobson, D-Lexington.

"I think it is very safe to say that if we do allow travel for members of the Senate in the next fiscal year, it will be significantly curtailed from the past," Maxey said.

"Sen. Hobson has expressed an interest in the NCSL Conference, given the fact that Sen. Monson is president. That may weigh into the decision, but no decision has been made," Maxey added.