One of the more minor accomplishments of the State Legislature this past session was the adoption of a bill that required local governments to create and adopt, by resolution, a policy on out-of-state travel for elected officials. The policy must address the following three issues:
1. When is travel outside the state appropriate?
2. What are the applicable expense limits?
3. What are the procedures for approval of travel?
The policy must be adopted by the City Council (or other applicable governing body) by a recorded vote and must be available to the public for review upon request.
Most of my peers have pointed at this new state law as proof of the folly of the Legislature’s 2005 session: Fiddling around with out-of-state travel policies for local government while not talking to each other about the State’s budget and taxation policies until the state government is forced to shut down for lack of an approved state budget.
I disagree, at least in part. Say what you will about the priorities of our State Legislators, but the idea of having an out-of-state travel policy is not a bad idea. In fact, I think we ought to have one. And, it’s not a bad idea for the State Legislature to direct us to have a formal policy on such an issue. In fact, I think it’s OK. The Legislature did not tell us what that policy should be. They merely said that we had to have one and that we will have to be accountable for it. What’s wrong with that?
Now I’ve got to get busy and get started on preparing the new policy. It’s got to be adopted and in place by January 1, 2006.
No big deal.
