At least one-fifth of the Alaska Legislature attended a conference in Hawaii this month, at a cost of nearly $35,000 so far.
The Anchorage Daily News reports the final cost is still being tallied from the Council of State Governments-West conference. CSG-West is a nonpartisan policy group comprised of lawmakers from Western states. This year’s event was at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
Hotel bills for each of the lawmakers have ranged from $729 to $1,276. But that doesn’t include Senator Bert Stedman, a republican from Sitka, who was in a suite with a bill averaging more than $900 a night. He attributed that to a mistake by his office.
Lawmaker travel this year has also included a trip to Greece for the Special Olympics; a conference in New Orleans and plans for a “Norway policy tour” starting this weekend.
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