Sponsored travel for Calif. lawmakers topped $600,000
By Alexei Koseff and Jeremy B. White, Sacramento Bee
California legislators accepted at least $612,000 worth of travel last year from non-profit organizations and foreign governments, including lodging, airfare, meals and gifts received while visiting locations from Napa and Newport Beach to Australia and Argentina.
Senators took about $199,000 and Assembly members took about $413,000 of sponsored travel in 2015, according to statements of economic interest filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission this week. Twenty one lawmakers reported no subsidized travel last year.
Some trips related directly to policy issues that dominated the Legislature’s agenda. Lawmakers circled the globe to study how Australia endured a devastating drought. Months after a dogged oil industry campaign helped derail a bill to cut California’s petroleum use half, the California Independent Petroleum Association gathered 14 Assembly members and three senators in Newport Beach.
