Who pays for California politicians’ travel? Audit is looking for a legal amendment- calm

The law intended to notify the public who pays for the sponsored trips of legislators in California is short, According to a new audit by the State Agency for Financing the Campaign.

He recommends simplifying the disclosure requirements in order to cover more interest groups that take the lawmakers to political conferences and In international studies – A change that can only be made by the same legislators.

The Commission’s Audit for Fair Political Practices followed CalMatters’ revelations that the 2015 law requiring such travel organizers annually to disclose their main donors has only been used twice in seven years – Despite the interest groups that pay for millions of dollars for traveling for legislators during this time.

Investigators have examined the organizers of the best costs, most of which have never filed a disclosure form and concluded that they follow the rules that the reporting threshold is too high.

“This may create gaps in reporting, as some organizations with considerable donor activity may not respond to the threshold and remain released from disclosure,” the Commission Audit Division in their findings said.

Selected employees in California may accept Unlimited free trip From a non -profit organization, as long as the trip is related to policy issues or they export or participate in a panel. Officials must announce the trip as a gift to them Annual reports of economic interest Submitted to the Committee on fair political practices, but non -profit organizations – often funded by corporations, alliances and industrial associations that lobby the legislature and the state – are not obliged to disclose how much money they receive and by whom.

These trips have a long generates criticism by opponents They believe that they are an unofficial lobby that allows the interest groups to buy privileged access to lawmakers and regulators away from public control.

Thus, in 2015 report All donors who gave more than $ 1,000 and also accompanied selected employees of any part of the trip – provided that non -profit targets hit certain cost criteria.

The groups often fulfill the first threshold; Their travel gifts to selected employees often amount to more than $ 10,000, or at least $ 5,000 per employee in a year. But almost no one fulfills the second threshold, which requires the disclosure only if the cost of travel, study tours, conferences, conventions and meetings related to the selected employees represent at least one third of the total cost of non -profit purpose, reflected in his federal tax returns.

The audit recommends moving to a system where the Trip organizers submit the disclosure form if they exceed an equal amount of travel payments in a given year. One of the commissioner approved the proposal of their meeting on Thursday, where the findings were presented.

“I think it would be great to simply do this much cleaner,” said Commissioner Katarin Baker, who voted for the law when she served in the Assembly in 2015. She also warned the regulators to look at what other loopholes could be created : “Water goes where it can crawl, even with well -meaning people.”

In the end, however, all changes to the law will need the approval of the legislature – in fact, by asking the beneficiaries of sponsored trips to give up more transparency again. A bill introduced last year to tighten the reporting requirements inspired by Calmatters history was Quickly killed for undisclosed reasonsS

“After our audit, FPPC works to identify an effective disclosure frame that guarantees applicable and meaningful transparency,” said Adam Silver, chairman of the commissioner, in a statement. “We look forward to working with the legislature to make it a reality.”

The organizers of the trip and their sponsors do not like additional control. Several organizations have not voluntarily cooperated with the audit, according to the final report, and the Commission issued summons for receiving its financial records, stretching the investigation up to more than a year.

But during that time, More Forms to Discover have been submitted, including a few with a back date. There are now eight forms in the last three years.

The independent electoral project he told CalMatters during his initial reporting that he never corresponds to one -third of the threshold of costs represents half of them. The group organizes an annual conference at a luxury hotel in Maui, paid by corporate sponsors, whose representatives then gather for a week from political discussions and shresers with legislators.

The new forms provide the most comprehensive view that the public has ever received from the WHO financing and attends the conference that is Worship For the close link between legislators and interest groups that have business before the legislature. Nearly 60 different businesses paid on Visit the conference in 2023The most for which a disclosure form was submitted, along with a bilateral cohort of 14 legislators; Sponsors are mostly major companies and sales organizations such as AT&T, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Pfizer and Walmart.

“It was too difficult to try to understand the forms and to provide all the information they wanted to be released,” said Dan Hole, chairman and executive chairman of the independent electoral project in an interview. “Honestly, they really angered me. They sent me a summons. “

Howle said he had worked with the author of the 2015 Act to write requirements to release an independent project for disclosure, as he was angry that his event became a child on the sponsored travel poster for selected employees. But he no longer thought it was worth proving that his organization was released, so he plans to submit the form annually.

“If the public wants to look for this form and find out who was there, be my guest,” he said. “I think everyone should do the same thing.”