in summary
Financial disclosures show state lawmakers were showered with more than $330,000 in gifts, plus more than $1.1 million in interest group-sponsored trips. This last year’s total is 28% higher than 2022’s.
Last June, more than half of California’s legislators — both Republicans and Democrats, with no particular ideological preference — attended a gala celebration for new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. They left with a gift: A personally engraved box valued at $85.94.
These gifts are documented in financial returns that California elected officials must file each March for the previous calendar year. The reports, officially called Form 700, provide insight into gifts, sponsored trips, as well as any property they own and stock they own.
As part of the new Digital Democracy Initiative, CalMatters has extracted the information from these reports into a series of publicly available spreadsheets and analyzed them to provide insight into potential financial conflicts of interest.
How much were the gifts?
First, the rules: If you take a lawmaker out to dinner and the bill is at least $50, he has to report it. And if you give them something that puts them over the $590 annual gift limit, they have to give it back.
In 2023, gifts totaling more than $330,000 were given to lawmakers, according to reports. That total is more than double the $163,000 in gifts reported in 2022. All but one of the 120 lawmakers received a gift. The most different: Sen. Dave Cortez, a Campbell Democrat who hasn’t reported taking a gift in at least the last three years.
Donor analysis reflects who controls the legislature — Democrats. Nearly 20% came from party leaders, a total of $24,000, almost all of it for food and drink during politicians. The value of all the gifts Democrats reported receiving was more than five times that reported by Republicans, who hold 26 of the 120 seats.
The 2023 Speaker’s Inaugural Fund, managed by Rivas, gave $22,000 worth of items to this grand reception, including these engraved boxes. The fund has accepted donations of at least $25,000 each from unions, including those representing nurses, prison guards and teachers. Businesses like Kaiser and PG&E cut checks for $50,000 each.
Anthony Rendon, Rivas’ predecessor as Assembly speaker, ranked third on the list of top donors, giving away $16,000 worth of food and jackets to 19 lawmakers.
Wining and dining accounted for more than a quarter of all gifts last year; at least $85,000 was spent to collect the bill for more than 100 legislators in more than 750 cases. (Lawmakers get $128,215 a year plus $214 per day for expenses when in session, and leaders get more.)
But not all of the gifts were from interest or advocacy groups, and some even show the human connection between lawmakers.
Rep. Corey Jackson, D-Moreno Valley, gave 16 of his female colleagues flowers for their birthdays totaling about $1,000. They were two-sided bouquets; three went to Assembly Republicans.
Assemblywoman Laurie Wilson, a Suisun City Democrat who underwent breast cancer treatment last year, received flowers from Jackson and 14 other individuals and groups totaling about $1,400.
Free ride for legislators
Fancy dinners and receptions are nice, but the annual gift limit keeps the total relatively low. This is not the case with sponsored trips, which are virtually unlimited.
Special interest groups and nonprofits flew lawmakers to Argentina, Canada, France and elsewhere around the world. In 2023, more than 100 groups spent about $1.1 million on sponsored travel, compared to 85 groups and $950,000 on travel in 2022.
While 105 lawmakers reported taking at least one trip last year, three took in more than $30,000.
Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland, reported that her four trips cost $38,000, the most of any lawmaker. The trips are valuable for getting ideas of what works well, including countries with similar infrastructure, she said.
“We did intensive training on French high-speed rail, which of course is much harder to learn in the US because where do we have examples of electric high-speed rail?” she said.
Skinner also said she doesn’t accept every invitation to travel, but only those related to her core interests: energy, the environment, housing and public safety.
Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Gardena, reported the second highest value trips, 10 trips worth more than $31,000. Rep. Mike Fong, D-Monterey Park, accepted 15 trips worth more than $30,600.
Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco, a Downey Democrat, was the most frequent traveler. She reported taking 18 trips last year, but they were valued at just $27,150.
Even if the trips lead to policy or ideas for lawmakers, when nonprofits invite lawmakers and their representatives also attend, it creates the slightest appearance of a potential conflict of interest, said Carmen Balbar, executive director of Consumer Watchdog.
“If you have someone’s ear, you have a chance to influence them. And most constituents of each legislator will not be able to sponsor a trip for their representative,” she said.
More transparency could help assure Californians that their lawmakers are working in the public interest, she said: “Maybe when we pull back the curtain and have an idea of who was there and what their interests might be, we’ll be able to do better analyze whether they are lobbying or not.
Learn more about the lawmakers mentioned in this story.
This session, Sen. Ben Allen, D-El Segundo, is pushing a bill to increase disclosure of those trips.
As CalMatters reported last year, a 2015 law designed to require more transparency from organizations that sponsor legislative trips has had little impact. It requires annual reports from these groups that list all donors who gave more than $1,000 and also accompanied elected officials on any part of the trip — but only if the travel expenses totaled more than $10,000 or at least $5,000 per employee and if the costs represent at least one third of the total costs of the non-profit organization.
Allen’s bill would eliminate the second expense requirement and require disclosure from any person who arranges travel, whether a nonprofit or a business. He said Monday that he authored the measure largely in response to the CalMatters story.
“If you’re a huge organization that spends money on millions of other things, does that make the disclosure of your travels any less meaningful or impactful and important?” he asked. “Disclosure helps the press and the public and others trying to get involved in the political process better understand the system that’s in place to influence lawmakers.”
Allen himself made 6 trips worth $13,960 last year plus $40,000 in 2022.
As in 2022, the top travel sponsor last year was the California Foundation for the Environment and the Economy, and it wasn’t close. The group spent about $375,000 — nearly a third of the total for all travel sponsors — to take lawmakers on “study trips,” where lawmakers and some foundation board members meet with foreign business and government leaders to learn more about politics.
The San Francisco-based nonprofit has organized these tours for decades, funded and attended by representatives of companies and interest groups with business before the state. The foundation’s board is made up of organizations that typically disagree on issues, such as the Western States Petroleum Association and the Environmental Defense Fund, or municipal water providers and irrigation districts that serve primarily agricultural interests.
In an email to CalMatters last year, Jay Hansen, the foundation’s president and CEO, said the purpose of the trips is not to protect the interests of board members, but to help lawmakers “better understand the complex issues, witness of best practice, and consider the policy implications.’
At the same time, the foundation said the trips have run up bills. Lawmakers who have gone on these trips told CalMatters last year that they are helpful.
In 2023, the nonprofit is sponsoring eight trips, three overseas, including last March to Denmark, where nine lawmakers looked at offshore wind and other low-carbon energy sources. Some foundation events are closer to home: In February 2023, 18 legislators traveled to Napa for an energy policy conference, and in June, seven lawmakers also went to Napa for transportation policy and stayed at the luxurious Silverado Hotel.
However, the pace of travel picked up in the second half of 2023 with a trip almost every month. That’s to be expected: Fall in odd-numbered years is called a “midterm study break” by the state Senate because there are no legislative elections, giving lawmakers time to learn more about politics.
Last fall, the foundation took lawmakers to British Columbia to learn about recycling, to Lake Tahoe to talk tech and to Southern California in September to monitor more low-carbon energy projects. Lawmakers toured France’s high-speed rail in October and closed out the year at a water conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel.
The next largest funder of legislator travel in 2023 was the California YIMBY Education Fund, which spent $72,500 to take five lawmakers to London and Paris for a week to learn about transit, housing and land use policies.
This was the first year the pro-housing group sponsored legislative trips to “open up conversations with lawmakers,” said Matthew Lewis, the organization’s communications director.
While the group may organize another trip, it prioritizes policy development in Sacramento. “If we ever find ourselves in a budget crisis, we won’t do that because our mission is to pass pro-housing policy in California,” Lewis said.
Some legislators reported trips that were sponsored by multiple organizations. One example: The Bay Area Caucus Policy Retreat, a January 2023 event in Sausalito that included up to seven groups: the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, the California State Association of Electrical Workers, the California Teachers Association, the San Missionary Group Manuel, United States Food and Commercial Workers and PG&E. They reported spending more than $8,400 to have eight lawmakers attend.
CalMatters data editor and interactive elements John Osborne D’Agostino contributed to this story.
