The $357-million deficit has not put a crimp in legislative travel.

Since January, the state has spent $38,271 sending members of the General Assembly to New York, New Jersey, Washington, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Orleans and California.

And just this past week, the legislature footed the bills for four of its members — including lame-duck Rep. John Patrick Shanley — to go Las Vegas for a four-day G2E Global Gaming Exposition that is expected to cost the state $9,829, including the $1,145 per-person registration fee, according to a summary compiled by the legislative business office.

The other lawmakers who went to Las Vegas were Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, and Senators Frank Ciccone, D-Providence, and David Bates, R-Barrington, all members of a lottery oversight committee.

Following the whirlwind Vegas trip, Bates was scheduled to join Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, for a session of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, at the Hawk’s Cay Resort in Duck Key, Fla., where sessions on mortgage licensing and natural catastrophe financing would eventually yield to a glass-bottomed boat tour of Sand Reef Key.

As the national president of NCOIL, Kennedy has been among the more frequent travelers.

Another frequent flier is Sen. Leo Blais, the Coventry Republican seeking to unseat Sen. Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly, as Senate minority leader. From July 30-Aug. 2, Blais was in Chicago for the 35th-annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which describes itself as a forum for conservative state legislators and policy advocates.

This past weekend, he was reportedly flying out to a State Leaders Policy Conference in Dana Point, Calif., and on Dec. 3 he will go to an ALEC 2008 States & Nation Policy Summit, at a total estimated cost for this year of $4,259.

Algiere took no trips.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino, D-Providence, is scheduled to take a rare out-of-state trip next month to Atlanta for a National Conference of State Legislatures forum. Asked how General Assembly leaders justified, for example, sending four legislators to Las Vegas including the lame duck Shanley, during a budget crisis, House spokesman Larry Berman said: “The state Lottery is very significant [in terms of] revenue to the state … If they can find out what is successful in other states that would help Rhode Island, it would be a valuable experience.”’

Shanley has promised to write a report on ideas he brought back for raising more revenue. “If he comes up with one good idea [to] enhance revenue, it will be worth the price of the trip,” Berman said.

Assembly’s changing face

At a time when the state is frantically seeking answers to its budget woes, the lawmakers responsible for crafting those solutions are dwindling in numbers.

Six of the 17 House Finance Committee members and three of the 10 Senate Finance Committee members will not return to the General Assembly in January, either because they have been voted out of office or chose not to run again.

House Finance chairman Costantino downplayed the impact of the losses. “You still have two-thirds that have institutional history, so I’m not that concerned,” he tells Political Scene. “I think any team always has veterans and new people.”

A spokesman for House Speaker William J. Murphy said the speaker has no plans to make appointments before January.

Looking ahead, House Republicans are fighting to keep at least two GOP members on each of the major committees, despite holding just five seats overall after heavy Election Day losses.

“For the Finance Committee especially to maintain any bipartisan credibility, you have to have to have at least two members, because you have to have someone to second a proposal,” Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich.

Watson said he has asked Murphy to appoint North Kingstown Republican Laurence Ehrhardt to the Finance Committee, and reappoint Rep. John Savage, R-East Providence.

Kilmartin dynasty?

In the latest episode of All in the Family, Rhode Island style, Kristine Stamp Kilmartin, the wife of House Majority Whip Peter Kilmartin, has been promoted to the top-ranked legislative job held by her brother-in-law Michael Kilmartin until his recent retirement.

House spokesman Larry Berman has confirmed that Kristine Kilmartin, a long-time system analyst for the General Assembly, has been named acting director of legislative data systems.

The promotion raises her pay from $81,614 a year to $94,322. The unannounced appointment was effective Oct. 12.

For the record, Kristine Kilmartin’s 27-year employment with the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Services predated her marriage to Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket. She started working for the JCLS in 1981. She was second in command to Michael Kilmartin until his retirement.

Because her previous job as principal systems analyst has not been filled, Berman said “she is doing both jobs, and at a lower rate than her predecessor. Michael was making $115,590 at the time of his retirement.”

Asked about that, Berman said the new pay level is “consistent with past practice when people are promoted to an acting position” and “will be reevaluated if the job is made permanent.”

EDC retirement sweetener may be discontinued

The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation’s governing board, chaired by Governor Carcieri, is scheduled to vote today on eliminating 3 percent compounded annual increases for the independent state agency’s retirees.

The elimination of these so-called cost-of-living adjustments — or COLAs — would affect only those who retire after Dec. 1 of this year. The increases currently kick in when a retiree turns 65.

The elimination of the 3 percent COLA for future retirees is expected to reduce the agency’s 2009-10 pension expense from $1,217,175 to $817,175, Withers said.

There was no immediate response from Carcieri’s office about his stance on the proposal.

EDC spokeswoman Melissa Withers said the agency stopped offering pensions to new employees several years ago, offering them the opportunity to enroll in the equivalent of a 401k.

cneedham@projo.com