Call me a homer, but I think it’s rotten form for major California organizations to have retreats and conferences out of state. It’s particularly bad form if you’re say a union that has just launched a recall of the governor, or a group of Republican legislators holding out on approval of the budget.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., whose leaders have filed a notice of recall against Gov. Schwarzenegger, are holding their convention later this month in Las Vegas. I’m sure they got a good rate and will have a good time. But it’s tone deaf for a high-profile union that is demanding a big pay raise to go to Nevada. Earth to the CCPOA boys: your pay doesn’t come out of thin air. It comes from state tax dollars. State tax dollars are generated from economic activity here in California. Thus, it’s borderline obnoxious to help the Nevada budget while seeking to take money from the California budget. If you want a raise and a new contract, why don’t you swing by Carson City and ask the Nevada legislature for one while you’re at it?
California Republicans are also heading to Nevada for a big party fundraiser, with the Republican legislative leaders who are holding up a budget agreement as hosts. OK, it’s hardly a surprise when California’s GOP bigwigs do something politically dumb. But taking your fundraising event — and any tax revenues generated by the event — out of state while you’re holding up the budget because you don’t want to raise taxes even your the state doesn’t have enough revenues to support the level of spending in your own budget proposal…. well… the adjectives to describe the venality of that can’t be printed here.
So why Nevada? It can’t be the weather or the setting. California has any number of destinations where it’s more pleasant to be this time of year. Perhaps it’s the old, ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" thing? They don’t want Californians to see what they’re up to.