Junkets point to need for transparency

California lawmakers continue to draw criticism for taking pricey trips attended by lobbyists, where the latter get important face time with the former — as they sip margaritas on the beach in Maui or tour green energy plants in Scandinavia. Some trips ar

A recent investigative report from the news site Calmatters found that 40% of the nearly $1 million in sponsored legislative travel each year comes from the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy. Legislators sometimes sponsor bills related to what they’ve learned in their travels.

The nonprofit’s mission statement says it “brings together leadership from the labor, environmental, local government, and business communities with elected and appointed officials to facilitate non-partisan, substantive, and productive dialogue that moves policy on fundamental environmental and economic issues in California.”

That sounds reasonable, even if luxury travel provides bad optics. Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-burbank, for example, took a trip to Portugal to learn about windfarms. Assemblymember Lena Gonzalez, D-long Beach, traveled to Japan and Iceland. Gonzalez told Calmatters, “she met officials in Iceland and Japan who ‘were kind of stunned, like, this is not government paid-for, and you’ve got all these industries here.’”

Lobbying is of course a legitimate part of the legislative process. Legislators argue that it’s worthwhile to visit state-of-the-art facilities in other locales before voting on similar projects here — and that foundation funding is better than forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab.

As media reports note, the trips legally bypass state gift caps because they have a governmental purpose. The travel often becomes a campaign issue, which provides some accountability.

For instance, lawmakers received brickbats in 2020 for heading to Maui during the pandemic. The infrastructure trips are more defensible in that there’s at least some discernible purpose and plausible value in such trips, but watchdog groups still complain they provide special lobbyist access.

There’s talk about toughening rules, but perhaps it’s time to diligently enforce existing rules. A 2015 law requires trip sponsors to disclose attending donors. “Yet in the seven years since the law took effect, disclosure forms have been filed for only two events — despite legislators reporting millions of dollars in sponsored travel and dozens of trips during that period,” Calmatters added.

We’re not for banning such trips. But they should be fully disclosed, including the names of the lobbyists who participated. Then voters can decide whether their lawmakers are being unduly influenced by major donors.