Further, $180 for meals for three days?  That’s $60/day for meals — quite unnecessary, especially considering that most conferences, at least the ones I’ve attended, include most meals with the conference registration fee.  Finally, $914.10 for three nights in a hotel amounts to $304.70 per night.  Look up the Hotel at Marriott’s Newport Coast and you’ll see why it was so expensive.  I don’t expect state employees to stay in a Super 8, but $100-150 per night would provide more than adequate accommodations for just about anyone.

By the way, you can very easily take a trip to Europe and visit multiple countries over a period of 1-2 weeks for as little as $1,500 per person, or another $500-1000 more for better travel, food, and accommodations.  I’ve done it several times.  

The larger point is that state-owned property, and tax dollars, in general, should be used carefully and sparingly.  I like to assume the best of people, and that we are using our public resources efficiently, but when I hear stories like this one I start to become a little skeptical.  Don’t you?