Travel costs are accelerating for Rapid City's elected officials.

Since 2005, travel-related expenses have more than doubled for the city council and mayor. And the council and mayor have already spent nearly as much in the first four months of this year as they did throughout all of 2004.

Last year, Rapid City officials accrued a record $41,777 in travel-related expenses.

By comparison, Sioux Falls budgets $24,000 for its officials, and that amount seldom is completely used.

Cheyenne, Wyo., council members dropped their National League of Cities membership because the council didn't feel it was worth the investment, according to mayor Jack Spiker.

Aberdeen budgets $3,000 for travel, and none of its eight city council members have traveled to an out-of-state conference in the past three years. In contrast, the mayor and five Rapid City council members (Malcom Chapman, Tom Johnson, Bill Okrepkie, Deb Hadcock, Lloyd Lacroix and Mayor Alan Hanks) individually spent more on travel than Aberdeen's $3,000 total budget.

Rapid City's travel budget has its critics.

City council members Sam Kooiker and Bob Hurlbut raised concerns about sending 8 of 11 elected officials to a conference in New Orleans last fall. Eventually, only five council members ended up attending.

Rapid City resident Larry Hall agrees that the city's travel budget has gotten out of hand and believes the amount the city spends on council travel is a waste of taxpayers' money.

"I know they try to justify it, but knowing what they bring back from it, it's stuff you could probably find on the Internet," he said. "It's ridiculous. And to send five guys is a real waste."

Hall said sending one council member, maybe two, might be all right, and the council should limit how many conferences they attend.

He also thinks the current budget should be slashed to about $15,000, which is similar to what Sioux Falls budgets.

"That's fiscal responsibility. This is not fiscal responsibility," Hall said.

Mayor Hanks supports the current Rapid City travel policy, noting it isn't any different than when he served as a city councilor.

"If people want to take the time out of their busy schedules to go to a convention and educate themselves on major issues, in my mind, we should be encouraging it, not discouraging it," said Hanks.

But that isn't the case in Sioux Falls, where the city council and mayor spent about half as much as Rapid City in 2007. Sioux Falls budgeted $16,500 this year for city council travel and $7,500 for Mayor Dave Munson's travel costs.

According to chief of staff Jodi Schwan, Munson rarely travels. Schwan can't recall the mayor attending any conferences in the past six years, but Munson does make maybe one or two trips per year to Washington, D.C., to lobby on behalf of various city projects.

"He just believes it's important for him to be here, to be in the office," Schwan said. "Not to say that there isn't a benefit to those, but he feels his time is better spent being in Sioux Falls."

The most expensive annual trip for Rapid City officials is to the National League of Cities convention held in Washington, D.C., held last month. This year, four Rapid City council members and the mayor made the trip.

Cheyenne dropped its membership to the NLC because of the cost. That city's mayor said one council member used to go to NLC events frequently and would rack up $2,000 to $3,000 bills each time.

"We just didn't get that kind of value out of it. I don't think it's this way for everybody, but for us, there just wasn't enough value attached to them," Spiker said. "Our city council travel budget dropped to almost nothing."

Cheyenne budgeted $5,000 for travel this year, but Spiker doesn't believe they will come close to spending it. Cheyenne officials prefer in-state training and conferences.

"We really like the local association and seem to get far more value out of it than we do the national." Spiker said.

Aberdeen has also managed to keep its travel costs low by focusing on in-state trips, and generally, only two or three people go at one time.

"I think they're all pretty busy, and in addition to that, they haven't really seen the value in it, probably," Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen said.

"I'm personally not too excited about those kind of things in an age of all the information you need being on the Web. Traveling as an elected official might be fun, but I haven't done it at all."

Levsen said Aberdeen does send employees to out-of-state conferences for professional development and ongoing education.

He said the city sees more benefits from educating employees than providing ongoing education for council members.

"Theoretically, if you elect people they have enough knowledge, right?" Levsen said. "There's always some value in intermingling with people, but I feel like I get enough of that talking with people from around the state and learning from them."

Hanks defended the out-of-state trips, pointing out that the Washington, D.C., NLC convention provides a good opportunity for local elected officials to make direct contact with the state Congressional delegation about Rapid City projects.

That kind of face-to-face lobbying is more beneficial than a phone call or e-mail, he said, when asking for help with high-dollar needs such as Canyon Lake dam or other big projects.

"So often, when you send a letter or an email, you're not talking directly to senators and our congresswoman. This way, when you have a private audience, you know you're getting the message across that we have needs, and that were looking for some help on some issues," Hanks said.

The mayor and four council members who were at the NLC conference last month met with Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune, and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Hanks believes it is worth the price of airfare and a hotel stay to lobby lawmakers considering the millions of dollars at stake.

And having four council members already in town stressed the importance of the issues.

"The return on investment, if that's the way you want to rate it, should be tremendous," he said.