The Ultimate Outsourcing of California State Government: Governor's Office and Legislature Now Funded by Special Interests

A little of the history of article XII, section 7, of the California Constitution, which prohibits public officers from accepting passes or discounts from transportation companies, is found in an Ethics Opinion from the Attorney General, Bill Lockyer:

The genesis of the ban emanates from the early days of California and lies with the historical relationship between the legislature and the railroads. The ban focused on corruptive influences of gifts of free transportation by railroads and other transportation companies to legislators and other public officials. In 1970, a proposal to repeal this provision from the Constitution was defeated by the electorate.

Reduced to its component parts, the ban applies in the following manner:

1. The ban is violated when a transportation company makes a gift of transportation or discounts the price of transportation to a public officer.
2. The ban applies to public officers, both elected and non-elected but does not apply to employees.
3. The ban applies to interstate and foreign carriers, as well as domestic carriers, and to transportation received outside of California.
4. The ban applies regardless of whether the pass or discount was provided in connection with personal or public business.
5. Violation of the ban is punishable by forfeiture of office. Let's now consider these elements in greater detail.

The ban only applies to gifts made by transportation companies. An airline ticket or rail pass provided by the airline or railroad to officers would be covered by the ban. …

For purposes of the ban, the receipt of free transportation includes all other benefits accompanying the transportation. For example, when a railroad wished to provide transportation to a number of state and local public officers along with food, beverages, and entertainment from San Francisco to the Dixieland Jazz Festival in Sacramento, the officials in question were advised that the railroad should not merely charge the officer the standard fare for the transportation. Rather, all of the benefits received along with the transportation should be included in computing the value of the transportation. Officials who paid the full value of the goods and services could avoid receipt of a prohibited gift.

We've just seen a record of obscene campaign contributions in California this election cycle--topping $600 million dollars. We have railed against the influence of this money on the political process and the corruption of state government. But these other "gifts" to public officials also need to be scrutinized.

Action is needed, not because our elected officeholders are corrupt--any more than anyone else--but because they are human and influence is why campaign donations and private funding for trips and the like are given by private interests in this state. The same was true in when bold Progressive Reforms were needed in 1911 and human nature is the same today. Only now it's not the railroads.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FCTR) also has tapped into this in a press release: "Documents Reveal Details of Corporate-Funded Luxury Junket for Top State Officials, Spouses And Lobbyists;Chevron Hosts Day of Meetings for Gov's Chief of Staff, Assembly Speaker and Others On "Rascals In Paradise" Tour of South America."

One little snippet:

"This is Jack Abramoff's golfing trips to Scotland, only with more bathing suits," said FTCR Executive Director Douglas Heller. "These luxury vacations paid for by special interests and dressed up as study trips just confirm that government officials are guided by a culture of corruption. The companies on the trip got days of uninterrupted lobbying and socializing with these public officials who will certainly remember their all-expense-paid vacation to the Copacabana when the lobbyists demand special favors in Sacramento."

The trip was sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy (CFEE), whose funders include the trip's corporate. FTCR has criticized public officials for participating in previous CFEE-sponsored, energy industry junkets including trips to Italy and Australia in 2004. In addition to having 12 days of unfettered access to powerful California state officials, Chevron, a major corporate-funder of the trip, delivered a series of private presentations to the officials all afternoon on November 13. John "Jack" Coffey, Chevron's lead lobbyist, was representing his company on the trip.

Read what the Foundation has to say and shed some more tears. Then let's take a look at what we need to fund our state government, tax the corporations of this state what is necessary, pay for salaries and investigations through appropriated funds, and end this privately funded outsourcing of our democracy. That includes taking a look at the parts of Proposition 140 that have chronically under funded our state legislature and led lobbyists and organizations to do much of the work that should be done by staffers under the Capitol dome. If our legislators, other elected officials, or staff need to travel to meetings and confereces, we should be paying for it. Otherwise, we'll be paying for it in other more indirect and disguised ways.