Indiana lawmakers travel on taxpayers' dime

• Indiana lawmakers spent more than $216,000 on out-of-state travel during the past 26 months.
• Travel included conferences with ALEC, a controversial conservative policy group
• One freshman lawmaker's trip to Alaska cost more than $3,800.
• Travel spending is on the rise, despite budget concerns.

How would you like to check out some of the most technologically advanced vehicles in the world? Or visit the White House with a championship basketball team? Or take an all-expense-paid trip to Alaska?

Indiana lawmakers have traveled across the country to do all of those things — and Hoosier taxpayers have picked up the tab.

An Indianapolis Star review of lawmakers' out-of-state travel records found that taxpayers have spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars during the past two years to send state lawmakers everywhere from Alaska to Florida.

Most of that money was spent on government and legislative conferences — including those of a powerful and controversial conservative policy group.

In all, 86 Indiana lawmakers took 188 trips during the past 26 months, costing the public at least $216,506. And that figure doesn't include a $156 per diem for each day of travel intended to cover the cost of food and other incidental expenses. That brings the total to $343,490.

In some cases, the trips included swanky hotel rooms and expensive flights to exotic locations.

Freshman Rep. Casey Cox took the most expensive single trip: A week-long visit to Anchorage, Alaska, for a National Council of State Governments conference in August. The excursion included a $1,760 plane ticket and a $300-a-night room at the Hilton Garden Inn, which boasts Neutrogena bath products and Herman Miller desk chairs. The conference featured sessions on health care, education and leadership — but also a late-night event at Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse and an entire day devoted to an "Alaska Railroad and Kenai Fjords Cruise."

Altogether, the trip cost taxpayers $3,869. Cox declined an interview request from The Star.

The Star also found that travel expenses are on the rise. Lawmakers spent nearly $91,000 in fiscal 2014, up from about $84,000 in fiscal 2013. They've already spent more than $41,000 during the first two months of the current fiscal year.

The increased spending on out-of-state travel comes at a time when state tax revenue continues to fall short of projections. Gov. Mike Pence has already said he plans to eliminate some state programs as he develops a proposed two-year budget ahead of next year's General Assembly.

Legislative leaders argue there is value in the trips. Conferences give lawmakers an opportunity to network with other policymakers and bring solutions back to Indiana. Even some government accountability groups support such taxpayer funded trips because they expose legislators to fresh ideas and prevent special interests from influencing politicians by picking up the tab.

But the overtly ideological nature of some conferences and the role of the private sector raises questions about whether taxpayers should be picking up the tab.

For example, 25 lawmakers — all Republicans — took 46 trips to meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that brings together conservative lawmakers and private businesses to craft model legislation. Indiana lawmakers spent $60,464 to travel to ALEC events — more money than was spent on the conferences of any other organization.

Critics say ALEC is different from other organizations such as the National Conference of State Legislatures or the Council of State Governments. ALEC espouses a specific ideology — limited government, free market, and federalism — and almost exclusively attracts Republican lawmakers.

ALEC also differs from other groups in that it allows corporations to be members, giving private companies an opportunity to directly influence model legislation created at the conferences.

"I know NCSL probably gets some corporate funding, but I don't think to the same extent as ALEC," said Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, a government accountability group that has criticized ALEC. "I see ALEC as more of a lobbying group than a professional association for legislators."

Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, dismissed such concerns, noting that NCSL has received criticism for leaning left.

"You are going to have critics on both sides of all these organizations," Long said. "I don't think ALEC deserves any more scrutiny than anyone else."

Right now, ALEC is exempt from Indiana's lobbying law — something Vaughn would like to see change under an ethics reform package House Republicans are putting together. But that could prove challenging. Indiana's legislature has deep ties to the organization. House Majority Whip Dave Frizzell, R-Indianapolis, is a former national chairman, and Senate commerce committee chairman Jim Buck, R-Kokomo, is ALEC's national treasurer.

ALEC isn't the only politically-charged conference lawmakers attended. Democratic House Minority Leader Scott Pelath spent $358 on airfare and mileage to travel to a 2012 Progressive States Network meeting in Washington, D.C. But most of the lawmakers' 188 trips were to either NCSL and CSG conferences.

"They are important for legislator education, for Indiana to have a voice, and for ideas across the country to be brought back here," Long said.

He sits on NCSL's executive committee and took half a dozen trips to that group's events, including an executive committee meeting in Alaska, where he spent $851 in June for four nights at The Hotel Captain Cook. The hotel's website describes it as "Anchorage's only true luxury hotel."

"I wanted to go up there — I admit that," Long said. "But as an executive board member, you have to be at three of four meetings. And the taxpayers didn't pay for my airfare — that came out of my pocket."

Long said he limits travel for senators to once a year, but makes exceptions for lawmakers who have leadership roles in organizations such as ALEC, NCSL or the Council of State Governments.

The House has similar rules, said Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, who spent no public money on his own travel. House members are allowed one fully paid educational trip a year. After that, the state will only cover the cost of conference registration, he said.

"The basic question is whether we want well trained and educated policymakers at the helm for the state," he said. "I think, by and large, the training, education and networking that happens at these conferences is a net positive for Hoosier taxpayers."

Rep. Woody Burton, R-Whiteland, echoed that sentiment, pointing to an encounter with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich during a recent ALEC conference. The two men discussed virtual learning and Burton said he plans to introduce a bill to encourage it during the upcoming legislative session.

"I never would have got a chance to sit down with Newt Gingrich if not for that trip," said Burton, who spent $5,612 on four trips to ALEC meetings, including a four-day, $896 stay at The Grand America hotel in Salt Lake City in July 2012. That hotel features a spa, a pastry shop modeled after "the great European confection houses" and rooms furnished with handcrafted furniture and Italian marble bathrooms, according to its website. Traditional English tea is served in the afternoons.

Other lawmakers traveled for less conventional reasons. Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis, took a $1,200 trip to an event honoring the Indiana Fever at the White House. Rep. Randy Frye, R-Greensburg, took a $1,400 trip to a clean car expo in Long Beach, Calif.

Breaux called her trip a "valid use of taxpayer dollars."

"There was not necessarily any legislative benefit," she said, "but I thought it was an honor they were acknowledging our Fever team and acknowledging them on a national level for what they accomplished here locally."

Not all lawmakers think publicly funded travel is a good idea.

"I don't think it's an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars," said Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel. "With technology and the Internet and our institutions of higher education, there shouldn't be a need to spend taxpayer dollars for people to go out of state."

Delph, who did not use any public money to travel, said he thinks there are other motives at play.

"I believe the leadership in both chambers uses out-of-state travel as a perk to keep their membership happy with them," he said. "The other thing they won't tell you about these trips is that lobbyists will go with them. They have unfettered access to be able to build their own relationships."

But Frye, who spent $5,602 on three ALEC conferences and two clean transportation expos, said most lawmakers aren't eager to leave their families and spend time learning about complicated issues; however, the results are worth it, he said, pointing to legislation he sponsored that promotes the use of natural gas as vehicle fuel.

"I don't go to conferences just to go. It takes me away from my family," he said. "But I thought it was necessary."

Star Data Journalist Haoyun Su contributed to this story.

Call Star reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.