Term-limited lawmakers plan travel at public expense

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Five state lawmakers being forced out by term limits plan to travel to a summer conference designed to make them better legislators -- even though their work in the Legislature will be done.

At this summer's meeting of National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, lawmakers from across the country are to discuss issues such as budgets, technology, health care and education.

An analysis by The Associated Press found that three term-limited Missouri senators and two-term limited representatives are scheduled to attend the July 23-27 conference.

Altogether, 11 senators and three representatives have been approved or have asked to attend the conference.

Term-limited senators approved to attend are Democrat Danny Staples of Eminence and Republicans Morris Westfall of Halfway and Betty Sims of Ladue.

Term-limited House members who have asked to attend are Democrats Bill Boucher of Kansas City and David Reynolds of Florissant. They have not yet received House approval.

A 1992 law approved overwhelmingly by voters limits lawmakers to eight years in each chamber. Because the clock starting ticking with the 1994 election, this is the first year in which the law to have a widespread effect.

Term limits will prevent 74 of the 163 House members and a dozen of the 34 senators from seeking re-election. Twenty-five House members have filed as candidates for Senate seats, but Boucher and Reynolds are not among them.

According to information provided by the House and Senate, registration for the NCSL meeting costs $395 per lawmaker while hotel rooms will cost taxpayers between $149 and $163 a night. The cost of a single, round-trip airline ticket to Denver could range from $191 to more than $500, although the flights have yet to be booked.

The Senate plans to pick up the entire bill for its members while House members will have to dip into their personal office accounts, which also are state-funded.

Boucher, who has been to several conferences during his 11-year tenure in the House, said he has practical reasons for attending the conference.

"I may be back as a lobbyist, and so I still have an interest in legislation. And even though I won't be on the floor, I can still come and influence people to vote on or introduce certain types of legislation," Boucher said. "There are still issues I want to get accomplished, so that's why I want to stay in the mix."

'Nothing I'm married to'

Westfall said he has attended similar conferences in the past and didn't consider the fact that he wouldn't be back in the Legislature next year.

"I hadn't weighed that a lot," Westfall said. "It's something I've kind of got in the habit of doing. If there's a lot of objections that we shouldn't go because we're term limited, why, it's nothing I'm married to or just have to do."

Greg Upchurch, chairman of Missouri Term Limits, which pushed the 1992 initiative, said he was not surprised.

"We always suspected that there were a lot of people up there who were in it for themselves, and this is just a very blatant example of that," Upchurch said. "I'm not at all surprised. Talk about selfish."