Barred from using Ohio tax dollars, some state lawmakers are expected to use campaign cash to cover their travel expenses for the governor’s relocated State of the State address this year.State law allows elected officials to pay for gas and meals related to their duties with political donations. The provision keeps taxpayers from picking up certain tabs, but it has raised concerns from at least one state government watchdog group that says it has the potential to extend donors’ influence beyond elections.Gov. John Kasich is delivering his annual policy speech this afternoon from Wells Academy elementary school in Steubenville, which is close to the West Virginia border. It will mark the first time the speech is delivered outside the Statehouse in Columbus. The first-term Republican has defended the move as providing a boost to a neglected area.State, city and school officials say they aren’t anticipating any additional costs related to the speech. But a final figure isn’t yet known.No extra state dollars will be spent on getting all 132 state legislators to Steubenville, even though their joint session with Kasich is being held 130 miles east of Columbus.Most lawmakers typically receive a weekly mileage allowance that covers one round trip to the Statehouse from their homes.Carpooling to the event has been strongly encouraged, according to a memo the Kasich administration has sent to its 26 Cabinet officers.Senators rent busSeveral Republican senators and staffers are making the trip from Columbus in an $840 rented bus paid for by their caucus’s campaign fund. The drive is expected to take three hours, one way, from the capital. But travel time could be longer or shorter for some officials leaving from their homes.State lawmakers won’t get any money for hotel stays or food along the way.“It is their responsibility to take care of that,” said Mike Dittoe, a spokesman for the Ohio House. “There is no taxpayer dollars associated with the reimbursement of that at all.”House Speaker William Batchelder, R-Medina, has said staff will not be paid for travel to the event, either.Of more than 200 House staffers, fewer than a dozen are expected to go to the speech, Dittoe said.Using campaign contributions to pay for doing the normal work of government could put pressure on lawmakers to raise money just to function, said Catherine Turcer, director of the Money in Politics project that researches contributions to Ohio’s statewide and legislative candidates.“The notion that if you use campaign money that it doesn’t cost the taxpayer money is silly because it opens the doors to campaign contributors,” Turcer said. “It increases their access and their role in government.”Neither Common Cause Ohio nor the League of Women Voters of Ohio has taken a position.Taxpayers will pay speech-related costs for some state employees and administration officials, though those amounts aren’t yet known.State Auditor David Yost plans to attend the speech and use state money to pay for the trip, his spokeswoman said. Yost and one staff member will take a state car, and he also plans to attend a separate event in the area.Attorney General Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Jon Husted and Treasurer Josh Mandel do not plan to attend. The seven justices on the GOP-controlled Ohio Supreme Court also won’t be there because court is in session.Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols called concern about the cost to taxpayers of moving the speech “much ado about nothing.”Nichols said state agencies and the governor’s office already have travel budgets to cover mileage and other expenses.“They are utilizing the travel budget because this is legitimate travel,” Nichols said. “Almost all are participating in other events up there, so it’s not just going up to the speech and coming back.”Nichols said he couldn’t provide the number of administration officials who would go and how many cars they would take because arrangements were still being made. Most are traveling today. Only a few people in the governor’s office are expected to be reimbursed for overnight lodging.Security cost unknownIt is unclear how much more security will cost this year.The State Highway Patrol doesn’t break down spending on individual events, said Lt. Anne Ralston, a spokeswoman for the patrol. She declined to say how many troopers would be working at the event, citing security.