WITH TIGHT BUDGET, MEETINGS LOOK LIKE JUNKETS

Like attendance at any trade organization's annual conference, there are benefits to be gained by state legislators attending special meetings. Indeed, a good many major pieces of legislation will find their way into statehouses across the nation as a result of these meetings.

But when businesses send representatives to trade meetings, those businesses pick up the tab. When legislators go to out-of-state meetings, taxpayers foot most, if not all, of the bill.

This year, Missouri is among several states worrying about a budget crunch. The years of ever-expanding revenues are over, and while state income continues to grow, it is climbing at a slower pace. In the face of this predicament, many taxpayers view trips to legislative conferences as little more than junkets.

Let's face it, the meeting rooms at convention centers in Anchorage, Alaska, and San Juan, Puerto Rico have the same four walls as meeting rooms in St. Louis, Kansas City or even Cape Girardeau. It is appropriate, then, for taxpayers to wonder why 33 lawmakers and seven staff members need to go to a conference in San Antonio when money is tight.