Dear Arthur and friends,

Here is the best scenario political junket.  Send some state governors and some members of state General Assemblies  to Phoenix, Arizona in mid July without air conditioning.  The temps in Phoenix at that time of year reach 113 degrees at midday with about 30 to 40 percent humidity.  Phoenix will be a preview to where some politicians may be heading in the afterlife.   

Peace,

Jim

Maybe we could turn off the a/c or the heat for a day or two to share the reality check while they were assembled.

I am sure the junkets only occur at the right time for other learning expeditions.

House Finance Chairman Steven Costantino, D-Providence, is not going to Atlanta after all.

He had been booked -- and the state had paid $425 in registration fees -- for both Costantino and Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy to go to Atlanta to attend the Dec. 10-13 National Conference of State Legislatures Fall Forum.

But Costantino, who has already begun a run of public hearings on the depth of the state's budget crisis, had second thoughts about taking the trip after the ruckus stirred up by the publication earlier this week by The Journal of the $38,271 in travel expenses run up by state lawmakers since Jan. 1.

Just last week, four lawmakers -- including lameduck Rep. John Patrick Shanley, D-South Kingstown -- took a state paid trip to Las Vegas for a gambling conference.

House spokesman Larry Berman said Costantino had made plans to attend the NCSL months ago, "but he decided this week after holding the first of a series of budget hearings that he wouldn't have time to attend the conference.

"The NCSL has been notified and will be refunding the registration for the conference to the state. The hotel and airfare were never booked,'' Berman said.

He had no immediate response when asked whether the House's most frequent traveler -- Kennedy, D-Hopkinton -- was still planning to take the Atlanta trip.