Lawmakers Roll Up Sleeves ... and Hula

SACRAMENTO

Our legislative leaders have been boondoggling in Hawaii while Sacramento bleeds a rapidly widening flow of red ink. Their attention is urgently needed back home. But let’s look at the big picture.

You recall the background:

The prison guards union -- a generous donor of political money and, in turn, recipient of state government largess -- feted lawmakers last week at a Maui resort. It was called a “conference” -- political gab in the morning, then golf, the pool ...

Three of the four top leaders -- and several other lawmakers -- fled California’s near-bankrupt capital two days after the new Legislature was sworn in. The trio were Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City), Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga and Assembly GOP Leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks.

Veteran Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) had the good sense to stay home. “I didn’t feel like going to Hawaii,” he says. Fact is, Burton is a political workaholic who can’t sit still for two minutes, especially on an island.

But about that big picture:

Union lobbyists and legislators argue that few tax dollars were spent. In fact, they say, not even union dollars paid for the lawmakers’ travel. They dug into their own pockets (most likely their political kitties).

Also, they’ll tell you, this makes for tight bonding -- these legislators and lobbyists chatting casually in their Hawaiian shirts over breadfruit and coconut milk.

“Frankly, I think we’d all be better off if [Gov. Gray] Davis had gone along,” says political analyst Tony Quinn. “If those people could deal with Davis in a social atmosphere, they’d get along better.”

Besides, it’s noted, there wasn’t much action last week in the Capitol. Lawmakers took the oath Monday. Davis met with leaders Tuesday. Then it was off to Hawaii. The governor didn’t propose his $10.2-billion package of spending cuts until Friday.

They’ll all be back today for the convening of a special budget session called by the governor.

Nothing illegal about traipsing off to Maui. Just capitalizing on some perks of office. Schmoozing. Relaxing.

But let’s take a closer look at this picture. At the blemishes.

Even if legislators did pay for the travel out of their campaign accounts, so what? That’s money from special interests, including the 26,000-member guards union. The guards gave Wesson $15,000, Brulte $6,000, Cox $2,000. Now it’s legally laundered into boondoggle dollars.

What’s more, these indirectly are taxpayer dollars. Where do the guards get their money to donate? Same place as teachers. The public purse.

The guards have given Davis about $1.5 million during his first term and, last winter, won a 37% pay hike spread over five years. You’d hope that labor contract would be renegotiated, since the state is facing a deficit of perhaps $30 billion.

“We’re seeking negotiations with all [employee] units,” state Finance Director Tim Gage said Friday. “We’re asking them to recognize that the state is in a dire financial circumstance.”

Wonder whether the guards’ lobbyists agreed to any pay rollbacks during all that bonding with legislative leaders in Hawaii?

It’s fair to ask, during this bleak time of certain budget cuts and probable tax hikes, just how do the disabled in nursing homes and the middle-class moms worried about their kids’ schooling bond with legislative leaders?

“I’d like to have that kind of access,” says Pat Leary, lobbyist for the California State Assn. of Counties, which does not contribute campaign money. “This is about the fairness of the budget process.”

It’s another example of why we need public financing of campaigns. The public, not money-doling special interests, should be buying off the politicians. That should be the perception and the reality. Now it’s often neither.

“It’s understandable why voters are turning out in decreasing numbers,” says Paul Ryan, who pushes campaign reform at the Center for Governmental Studies. “They perceive their elected officials to be bought out by large campaign contributors. And they consider their vote to have little influence on public policy.”

More immediately, tropical junkets with money-lubricating interests hardly instill public confidence in legislators who must return home and begin whacking the people’s services and hiking their taxes.

But the rationale I find most lame is that, hey, nothing was happening back at the office. I’ve got no work to do. Real leaders generate work and create action.

I’d wondered why the lawmakers didn’t stay in session last Monday and start staunching the red ink. Why wait for the governor? Now we know.

A lousy start for a new Legislature -- its leaders acting like undisciplined gluttons who can’t keep their hands off a dessert tray.

Frame it anyway they want, this picture just doesn’t look good.