Skelton: Special interests give Brown free ride to China
Gov. Jerry Brown’s trip to China isn’t being paid for by taxpayers. The governor isn’t footing the bill either. Instead, the cost is covered by the roughly 90 people traveling with Brown, some of them representing special interests.
It’s one of several things about the governor’s trip that rubs George Skelton the wrong way.
“It just looks unseemly — a pack of lobbyists and other favor-seekers paying big bucks to traipse after the governor, schmoozing and gaining invaluable access,” he writes in Thursday’s column.
Gov. George Deukmejian used state money for his five foreign trips during his two terms in the governor’s office.
“He thought it was inappropriate to use private money to pay for any of the public officials. He wanted to avoid any possible conflict with private interests,” said his former chief of state, Steve Merksamer.
All of Skelton’s columns are here.
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