The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California)
SACRAMENTO, CA — Coachella Valley legislators often travel on dimes other than their own — a practice watchdogs question.
Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, visited Japan and Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, traveled to Taiwan on trips funded by various sources during the Legislature’s spring break in April. Ducheny also visited France and Japan in 2006 on separate trips.
Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, and Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Palm Desert, in the past took trips to Israel through the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its affiliate, the Jewish Community Relations Committee.
The overseas trips, lawmakers said, give them a chance to talk with foreign government and business leaders and learn about diverse issues on which they may vote and debate such as telecommunications, the wine industry, nuclear power and high-speed railroads.
“We have been funding it in the budget,” Ducheny said of high-speed rail studies for California. “Seeing it on the ground gives you a better understanding so you can look at what we are proposing here and think about how it can adapt.”
“The impact of votes we cast do resonate around the world, whether it be on global warming or looking at high-speed rail,” Battin added.
But who should pay for them?
If the trips benefit the state’s official interests, then the state should pay, said Doug Heller of the nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
“If California politicians need to leave the state to do their work, then the state taxpayers should pay for it,” Heller said. “If politicians can’t convince the public of the value of a trip, then they shouldn’t be going on it.”
The trips generally are funded by nonprofit groups, foundations, foreign governments and campaign funds — legal arrangements that legislators defend and some government watchdog groups question or outright criticize.
“It’s a mix” of funding, Ducheny said. “That’s how you do any of that travel.”
For the host country, the trips offer a chance to show off their wares for possible future sales as well as to build long-term contacts.
“In the French government, we have a budget that helps us promote French technology,” said Agnes von der Muhll, deputy press counselor for the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. “It is not linked to one company in particular.”
Ducheny said it was clear on her trips last year to Japan and France to learn about high-speed rail lines that “they want to sell us the products built by their country.
“But it wasn’t like there was some hard sell,” she added.
Deborah Dragon, spokeswoman for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said her group’s goal is sharing “best practices” on common issues such as immigration and water, as well as building longer term relationships.
“As leaders of California’s communities, we want them to be familiar with Israel and the Israeli people and make it less of a foreign place and make it a place connectable to California,” Dragon added.
Garcia characterized a key federation goal more bluntly: “In terms of the Jewish Federation, their interest is to stop a war.”
Rules to travel by
The trips are often the most visible items reported under gifts on the annual Statements of Economic Interest that lawmakers must file disclosing personal financial information.
While there is a current limit of $390 for a gift from any one source in a year, there’s no limit on how much a group may spend paying for lawmakers to travel the world as long as it’s related to official business in some way.
It only has to be reported on the annual personal financial interest statement or campaign finance report.
Members of Congress generally may take privately financed trips connected to official duties, subject to varying rules and restrictions administered separately by the House, Senate and the Federal Election Commission.
Robert Stern, president of the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles and former general counsel for the Fair Political Practices Commission that enforces state campaign rules, said trips can be beneficial but are questionable when funded through nonprofit groups by interests like business or labor.
“I’m not anti-trip,” Stern said. “I’m anti-trip being paid by special interests.”
Stern agreed with Heller that it’s best if taxpayers pay for official trips.
Heller said legislators also shouldn’t be able to pay for overseas trips with campaign funds because it gives special interests another avenue to influence lawmakers. His group favors public financing of campaigns.
Short of state-funded trips, Stern said he prefers travel funded by foreign governments as long as it’s disclosed.
Ducheny said she likes that approach, which helped fund her trip to France.
“It’s a government-to-government trip,” she said. “We host people here, and we go there. That’s the way governments should have relationships.”
The United States government operates the International Visitor Leadership Program to pay the cost of bringing current and potential foreign leaders in “government, politics, the media education and other fields” to the United States, according to a U.S. Department of State Web site.
A department spokesman wasn’t able to provide a budget or number on annual participation, but the Web site says more than 200 current or former heads of state and 1,500 cabinet-level ministers have participated.
“The emphasis of the program is to increase mutual understanding through communication at the personal and professional levels,” the Web site states.
State funding opposed
Coachella Valley lawmakers generally opposed state funding of their trips.
“I think taxpayers have better use for their money, for roads, bridges and schools,” Garcia said.
“I just don’t think the state would entertain (paying for these trips) or should entertain doing it,” Benoit added.
Both said it’s legitimate for nonprofit groups to sponsor trips to educate lawmakers about issues.
“I felt it was appropriate, or I wouldn’t have gone,” Benoit said, adding that he’s turned down other trips.
Garcia also defended the use of campaign funds for such trips because they are contributed by donors “who believe in me and trust me to make good decisions.”
“Just because someone sponsors a trip or donates to your campaign fund does not even remotely suggest that you are going to vote or favor a project legislation or anything else in their favor,” Garcia said.
Battin said his donors “overwhelmingly know what the uses are” for campaign funds under state rules. Beyond campaigns, he uses them to pay for activities ranging from the cost of his staff to attend Rotary Club meetings to overseas trips.
But he said donors can’t, in effect, give him a trip by donating to his campaign account because trips may cost upwards of $10,000 or more and the limit on individual campaign donations is $3,600 per election.
These are some of the non-travel gifts each lawmaker received and from whom in 2006:
Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Palm Desert
$245 – Pacific life: Tennis tournament and Holiday Bowl
$145 – Steve and Karen Holgate: Kings tickets
$100 – Mission Inn Hotel: Christmas gala
Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City
$296 – Pacific Life: Tickets and lodging
$200 – Entertainment Software Association: Women’s conference ticket
$73 – Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians: Food and drink
Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta
$155 – Pacific Life: Tickets to the Pacific Life Open
$200 – Richard Soltys: Four copies of a book about the Coachella Valley
$77 – Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.: Dinner
Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego
$290 – San Diego Harbor Excursions: Ticket to a San Diego Chargers game
$145 – AT&T: Tickets to San Diego Padres games
$118 – California Democratic Party: Dinner
Glance: The trip totals
The 2006 statements of Economic interest showed:
– The Jewish Federation spent $3,375 on Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia’s trip to Israel.
– The Jewish Community Relations Committee paid $3,811 for Assemblyman John Benoit’s trip.
– The Taiwanese government paid for Sen. Denise Ducheny’s latest trip and Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, paid for his travel out of campaign funds. Those trips and costs will be reported in 2008.
– The French Embassy paid $6,500 toward the cost of Ducheny’s July 10-14 trip while she was in France.
– On her Nov. 12-18 trip to Japan, the Rolling Stock Association paid $3,100 toward the cost of her trip in Japan. The association represents private Japanese rail lines.
– On each of her trips, Ducheny paid for her round-trip airplane travel out of campaign funds.
