Charities Pay for California Government Officials to Travel With Corporate Executives

More than a dozen California state officials are overseas on trips arranged and paid for by two tax-exempt groups that have received large donations from companies pursuing government contracts, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Businesses cannot pay for government officials to travel under California law, but nonprofit groups can.

Four legislators and two members of the California Public Utilities Commission are currently on a trip to Tokyo, paid for by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, and are accompanied by executives from AT&T, Comcast, and another firm that is interested in obtaining a state contract. The environmental foundation receives support from several energy companies.

The nonprofit group California Climate Action Registry paid for another trip, to Europe, for about 10 state officials, a legislator, and other policy makers who oversee environmental issues. Also traveling are executives from energy companies that have given money to the charity.

“They are often extremely luxurious trips, where, we fear, a lot more lobbying and schmoozing goes on than actual work,” says Mindy Spatt, a spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group in San Francisco.

Officials of Climate Action Registry did not return a reporter’s call, the newspaper said. Officials of the California Foundation on the Environment and Economy were not quoted.