Opinion: 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 are outright junkets, while others have defensible policy goals.
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.”
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. 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.
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