House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino is not going to Atlanta after all.

The state had paid $425 in registration fees for Costantino and Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy to to attend the Dec. 10-13 National Conference of State Legislatures Fall Forum. Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, is still going.

But Costantino, who has begun a run of public hearings on the depth of the state’s budget crisis, had second thoughts about taking the trip to Atlanta after the ruckus stirred up by last week’s publication in The Providence Journal of the $38,271 in travel expenses run up by state lawmakers since Jan. 1. A week earlier, four lawmakers, including lame-duck 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 made plans months ago to attend the conference in Atlanta but decided last week, after the first of the budget hearings, that he wouldn’t have time to make the trip.

“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.

But don’t expect legislative leaders or Governor Carcieri to ban state-paid travel as Gen. Treas. Frank Caprio has suggested, and some states’ leaders — including Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell — have already done.

“Taxpayers rightfully expect us to be taking the same steps they are to live within our means,” Rell said in May when she issued the ban. “…Thanks to e-mail, videoconferencing and many other technological advantages, we will be able to trim the travel budget without putting ourselves at a disadvantage.”

Caprio labeled as “unacceptable” the recent state-paid trips to Las Vegas, Florida and other resorts. With Rhode Island “spending $1 million more a day than it takes in,” he said, the state needs to immediately cut out travel. Frequent traveler Carcieri had no comment on a potential ban.

Soon-to-depart Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano said: “All travel requests have been and will continue to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.”

House Speaker William J. Murphy went a step further late last week, calling a travel ban a bad idea that could ricochet.

“Given the budget constraints facing our state, we will continue to review every request for travel and training to ensure that Rhode Island’s participation is cost effective,” Murphy said. But, “I do not believe it is prudent to institute an all-out ban on travel/training because reciprocity is always an important consideration. Travel and tourism is vital to our state’s economy.”

He noted that in the last year, Rhode Island has hosted the annual meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General and the National Speakers Conference. Next summer, the United States Conference of Mayors will meet in Providence and the Council on State Governments has tentatively agreed to book a major meeting here in 2010.

“These conferences generate millions of dollars into Rhode Island’s economy, and it is not a good message to send to other state officials and corporate participants that we are closed for business,” Murphy said.

Governors to hear Obama

Governor Carcieri, meanwhile, is the next Rhode Island politician slated for a trip. The governor will travel to Philadelphia tomorrow to meet with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and hear the nation’s new Democratic leaders-to-be address “the unique challenges facing all states during this economic crisis.”

The meeting will be hosted by Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, chairman of the National Governors Association, and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, its co-chairman.

Republican Carcieri’s spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, said the agenda and other details were still being finalized by the National Governors Association, but “the governor is looking forward to the opportunity to talk with the incoming administration about the current economic situation and ways to speed recovery.”

“The meeting format may not allow for time for the governor to speak at length with the president-elect. Details of any stimulus package are still being worked out. However, the discussion will most certainly focus on his proposed stimulus plan and how it will impact all states, including Rhode Island,” Kempe said.

The governor, she said, is planning to fly to Philadelphia and back the same day. She could not say who was paying for the trip, or whether anyone will accompany Carcieri.

Council 94’s Grilli is out

The embattled executive director of Rhode Island’s largest public employees union is no longer employed by Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees.

Dennis Grilli, who had been on “paid administrative leave,” has agreed to a severance package with the union’s 21-member executive board, according to Council 94 President J. Michael Downey.

Downey would not disclose the details of the severance package, but he said Grilli was allowed to cash in unused sick and vacation time worth “several months” of his salary.

Grilli made $110,689 last year, according to a Council 94 organizational report filed with the federal Department of Labor.

Council 94 Deputy Director Joseph Peckham has assumed control of day-to-day operations for Council 94, which is actually an umbrella organization that serves 24 local state worker unions. But Downey, who is the elected president of the council, said he would play an active role in decision-making as well.

Shape up, union staff told

And speaking of Downey, the Council 94 president has issued a stern warning to the staff members who work at the union’s North Providence headquarters.

In an internal memo obtained by The Journal, Downey told the staff he will be “fully involved in the decision-making process” of union leadership following Grilli’s departure.

“As president of this council, it is my obligation to ensure that the members’ hard-earned dues dollars are put to the very best use on their behalf,” Downey said in the Nov. 20 memo. “In this regard, it is my observation that some staff need significant improvement. Let me be clear. I expect that all of you [sic] to give full measure to the job you have been assigned.”

He continued: “In addition, this council will not tolerate any form of disrespect or use of vulgar language and gestures — either toward the members or to your fellow staff.”

In a subsequent interview, Downey noted that the memo was the first he has written in his three years of elected leadership. He joked it may be his last.

There wasn’t a specific incident that prompted the warning, he said, but rather a culture inside the union’s Charles Street headquarters in which staff members regularly swear at each other or other union members. He also cited regular use of vulgar hand gestures.

“We don’t want that here,” Downey said. “If they don’t work on the things I outlined, we will have a problem. ... We’re not talking about layoffs; we’re talking about progressive discipline.”

Council 94 is an umbrella organization that serves 24 locals. About 10 full-time employees work in its North Providence headquarters.

Writer Hertzberg to speak

Hendrick Hertzberg, a senior editor and writer at The New Yorker magazine, will be in Providence on Dec. 15 to speak about the 2008 presidential election.

Hertzberg, who served as President Jimmy Carter’s chief speechwriter and is a former executive editor of The New Republic, will address the members of FairVote Rhode Island, an election reform group on whose national board he sits.

The Providence event will be at 6 p.m. at the Hi Hat, 3 Davol Square. It is open to the public for a suggested $50 donation for adults and $15 for students and people under 25.

cneedham@projo.com