Once upon a time in China
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recently announced trip to Liaoning Province, China, by 14 Utah lawmakers serves as a reminder of the skepticism Americans have always had regarding elected officials and their travels. Are they junkets? Or worthy expenditures of taxpayer dollars?
Well, it depends on the trip.
The Liaoning trip -- which will include Top of Utah lawmakers Sens. Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, and Pete Knudson, R-Brigham City, and Reps. Brad Dee, R-Ogden, Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, and Neil Hansen, D-Ogden -- will cost $36,000 for air fare and lodging. Participants have told other media outlets that they hope to establish business contacts in Liaoning that will eventually spur trade between the Chinese province and the Beehive State.
But this trip doesn't look much like traditional trade missions that are usually led by the governor. Chiefly, no representatives from Utah businesses have announced they will be going along.
Indeed, this trip has been dubbed a "sister state" excursion, in part to send a delegation of Utah politicians to Liaoning, which has reportedly sent delegations to Utah on one or more occasions.
There may well be $36,000 -- or more -- worth of taxpayer value in the trip. If so, it would be great to get before- and after-the-fact accounting of all that is to be accomplished and, afterward, all that was accomplished from lawmakers when they return.
We've asked for this sort of thing before, though, and have never heard a peep; so we won't be holding our breath.
It does seem more than a little odd that 14 lawmakers -- that's nearly 14 percent of Utah's entire Legislature -- need to travel to Liaoning to return the diplomatic favor or drum up new economic business or see the sights.
More than a roll-up-the-shirtsleeves-and-get-down-to-work trip, this has the odor of a join-the-Legislature-and-see-the-world perquisite.
We'd love to be proven wrong -- to have our cynicism rubbed right back in our face. In order to make that easier for lawmakers to do, we'll hold some extra space open on the opinion pages and hope they take us up on the offer.
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