Six North Dakota Legislators Spent $30,000 To Attend Obama Inauguration

North Dakota is not in the same economic condition the rest of the state is. Our economy is still humming along, and the tax revenues (though diminished of late) continue to flow into state coffers.
But even given the relative health of the state’s economy, there’s no excuse for this:

Legislative travel records indicate that six North Dakota legislators attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and were reimbursed by the state.
Among those in attendance were Democratic Rep. Elliot Glassheim (Grand Forks), Republican Senator Tony Grindberg (Fargo), Republican Senator Ray Holmberg (Grand Forks), Democratic Senator Aaron Krauter (Regent), Democratic Senator John Warner (Ryder) and Democratic Rep. Lonnie Winrich (Grand Forks). …
The six legislators who went to the Inauguration of President Barrack Obama rang up a bill of $30,100.02. Two of the legislators (Sen. Krauter and Sen. Warner) submitted reimbursement for per diem on their reimbursement forms after the trip. Both were paid their salary.

That last bit is important, because according to the Legislative Counsel these legislators were not to be paid their per diem (salary) during this trip. But they were paid otherwise.
What’s more, look at the amount that was paid. Six legislators at roughly $30,000 each is $5,000 for each person. For what amounts to a sight-seeing trip to Washington DC.
That’s an incredible amount of money, especially considering that Expedia is selling DC travel packages, including a hotel room blocks from the capitol, for $486 per person.
The legislators who were paid their salary need to give that money back. And all of these legislators need to be held accountable for abuse of taxpayer funding.