County officials from some states will be frolicking in the sand and surf of Hawaii next month while they attend a five-day national conference, but officials from Maine say they would feel guilty spending taxpayers’ money to bask on the beaches of Honolulu.

The National Association of Counties will hold its annual conference at the Hawaii Convention Center July 15-19. Some 4,000 county officials are expected to attend, but only two will be from Maine, one from Franklin County and one from York County.

“It appears no one else is going this year because of the cost,” Bob Howe, executive director of the Maine County Commissioners Association, said Wednesday. “Normally we might have two or three people there.”

Gary McGrane of Franklin County will attend because he is the state’s representative on the National Association of Counties board of directors, Howe said, adding that the Maine County Commissioners Association budgets nearly $2,000 annually for the conference.

McGrane will report back to all of the state’s 16 counties with information from the conference, Howe said.

Robert Bohlmann, York County’s emergency management director, also plans to attend, though his costs will be paid by the International Association of Emergency Management, he said Wednesday.

The conference in past years has been held in destinations such as Las Vegas and Miami, areas known for good entertainment and warm weather, Penobscot County Commissioner Tom Davis said Wednesday.

“The taxpayers of Penobscot County sure as hell aren’t going to be asked to pay for it,” he said. “It’s kind of a vacation and a business trip,” he added later.

So far, officials in Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin have abandoned the trip, citing similar concerns.

Airfares from the East Coast to Hawaii run anywhere from $600 to $1,600. Room rates at the five Waikiki hotels listed for convention attendees range from $179 to $295 per night.

The National Association of Counties reviews proposals every year from counties wishing to host the annual convention, according to Tom Goodman, director of the association’s public affairs department.

“It’s in a different location, a different state each year,” he said Wednesday.

This is the conference’s first time in Hawaii, Goodman said, adding that Honolulu was chosen as this year’s site seven years ago. Last year, the conference was held in Phoenix, and the year before in Milwaukee, he said.

The association has heard few complaints from county officials about this year’s conference location, he said.

“It’s not as though they’re calling us up and saying, ‘We’re not coming,'” he said.

On its Web site, the association provides a list of “pointers and precautions” for county officials to use to counter negative publicity about the trip.

Penobscot County’s three commissioners laughed when learning of the conference location and agreed not to go, Davis said. Many years ago, he condemned some commissioners who took their wives along to the annual conference, Davis said.

“I wouldn’t ask the county to pay for my wife’s trip, and she sure as hell wouldn’t let me go alone,” he said.

The Associated Press and Bangor Daily News reporter Eric Russell contributed to this report.