SACRAMENTO - Some California lawmakers haven't let the state's financial calamity keep them from enjoying the good life - they've been using campaign cash for first-class travel abroad, expensive dinners, salon makeovers and visits to luxurious spas.
Spending reports filed with the state covering the past three months show:
Several lawmakers checked into the Fairmont Hotel on Maui in Hawaii on donors' dimes two days after the start of an emergency session on the budget in November.
The lead state senator on budget issues joined colleagues who left the fiscal crisis behind to go to India, where they toured the Taj Mahal and stayed in the Four Seasons and other luxury hotels.
The former state Senate leader used campaign donations to pay $2,163 in membership fees to an exclusive Northern California social club.
"It's so stomach-turning," said Doug Heller, executive director of the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog. "There should be a self-imposed prohibition on living the political high life when California's budget is in such disarray."
State law says campaign money may be spent only on things related to political or government business, though it is permissible to take a spouse along on a trip. Luxury journeys paid for with such funds are typically justified as educational excursions - campaign finance reformers call them junkets - organized by special interest groups, most with business in the Capitol.
The state's official ethics watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission, recently enacted new rules requiring politicians to better explain their expenses in public disclosures, after media reports of lavish voyages around the world attracted attention. But the rules have not curbed spending on luxuries.
The lawmakers' Hawaiian trip was for a conference sponsored mostly by business associations and corporations. Half of each day was spent discussing public policy issues, according to the conference agenda; the rest was free for golf, tennis, snorkeling and shopping. Among those in attendance were state Sen. Ron Calderon and his wife.
Over the past three months, Calderon's donors also footed the bill for eight nights at Pebble Beach Lodge for an insurance conference; covered a $91-per-person holiday dinner for six staffers; and paid for a $296 meal at the Pacific Dining Car in Los Angeles. Contributors also treated him to a visit to Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa and a $669 bill at the Scottsdale Luxury Suites.
"No tax dollars are attached to the expenses," Calderon said. "The events and these conferences prove very valuable."
Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth and his wife spent $4,368 at the Fairmont Maui while attending the same conference as Calderon. And Assemblyman Tom Berryhill and his chief of staff spent more than $3,500 in November to join other lawmakers on a trip to China, where visits to museums and landmarks were interspersed with meetings related to earthquakes, flood, control and high-speed rail.
Assemblyman Charles Calderon, Ron Calderon's brother, spent $2,200 during the first week in October to attend a conference on the environment at a spa and the same insurance industry event his brother went to at Pebble Beach. More than $500 was spent for dinner for four at the swank Peppoli at Pebble Beach.
"I don't see it as a junket," the assemblyman said. "What you get out of it all depends on the legislator and how strong a sense they have of themselves and their purpose as a lawmaker."
