For the NCSL National conference. From the Kennebec Journal:

The Legislature is sending only two people to this year’s annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in New Orleans, an event that sometimes attracts more than 10 times as many Maine politicians and legislative aides.

One state representative and one staffer will be making the trip next month.

The lone legislator is Democratic Rep. Boyd Marley of Portland, who is stepping down this year because of term limits. That has raised questions about why he is traveling at state expense.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is arguably the most prominent association of state lawmakers in the country, making its annual meeting a prestigious political event that mixes seminars on many issues with social gatherings and speeches by prominent American politicians, writers and thinkers.

The conference will be held July 22-26.

In recent years, Maine has sent as many as 32 people to the annual meeting at taxpayer expense, including 20 lawmakers and staffers who racked up a $30,000 tab in Nashville in 2006 and 28 people whose 2007 trip to Boston cost Maine taxpayers about $35,000.

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