Regarding the June 21 article, "State Legislature: Flying high on taxpayer dime":

Reporter Steve Terrell needs to tell the whole story, not just the one he needs to sell newspapers while discrediting the work I have done as a legislator. He doesn't mention that my response to his inquiry a few days ago included that, not only did I belong to the Finance Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators, but that I went there last year to represent our state with other key legislators from New Mexico in meetings with legislators from other states.

At those meetings I once again explained how we were in a deep recession and what we needed to do to soften the impact to the states, just as I had done as a former chairman of our State Investment Oversight and a member of the Legislative Finance Committees.

Mr. Terrell never covered those meetings in Santa Fe, at which I explained that we were heading into this deep recession and that we needed to immediately limit our exposure in our equity positions because we faced a crash in the stock market. Maybe, if he was reporting that news, more people would have taken notice, and we would have saved billions in what we lost by ignoring that advice.

The reason I was on those finance committees was because of my experience as a financial analyst, and I was at the NCSL meeting to question other states as to how our citizens were being fed a spin by the federal government that our economy was sound. Maybe he should have attended those meetings as well, and he would have seen how I and the other legislators from New Mexico would also meet after NCSL to discuss what we needed to do in our state.

Even though it cost me more to attend those meetings than I was reimbursed by the state, I was elected to serve until my term was over in January 2009 and with my understandings of the financial conditions of our state and country I was not about to stop speaking out and "quit" and not continue to serve out my term, which also included going to interim committee meetings.

I would hope that, now that Mr. Terrell has excited everyone by using me as the lead on his story about legislators' trips, that he check into the facts I have presented. Maybe he could get another headline about what some of us were stating about the financial conditions we were facing.

I know the benefits of what I learned about what was going on nationally and in other states. What I shared with other legislators from throughout the country had more value to the state than even what it cost me to take that trip. And, I continued to express my opinions until my term had expired.

They say never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel, but if you're buying that much ink, at least tell the whole story.

Joe Carraro is a former state senator from Albuquerque.