Assembly panel backs tighter limits on gifts to legislators

Hold the "Bah, humbug."

Legislators didn't kill the Capitol's "Scrooge" bill Thursday after all.

Surprising even the measure's author, the Assembly elections committee supported restricting special interests from giving tens of thousands of dollars in gifts to state politicians and officials each year.

Sports tickets, theater seats, Disneyland admission, fancy meals, golf outings, music concerts, circus entertainment, bottles of wine and hordes of other gifts are targeted.

"I didn't know how this was going to work out," a smiling Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, the bill's author, said in thanking the committee for its 5-0 vote on Assembly Bill 2795.

Afterward, the San Luis Obispo Republican confided to an aide that he was shocked.

"I will say candidly that some (colleagues) like the gifts and would prefer that a bill like this was not moving forward," Blakeslee told reporters.

"But continuing a system which sees huge sums of money spent on these gifts is not supportable or sustainable," he added.

AB 2795 would ban individuals, companies or groups that employ lobbyists from giving gifts totaling more than $10 per month to state politicians and officials.

Lawmakers currently may accept gifts totaling up to $390 per year from a Capitol interest.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken no position on the measure.

Blakeslee said gift giving does not necessarily influence legislators but can fuel voters' skepticism. "If we don't have their confidence, it will be difficult for them to trust us," he said.

Derek Cressman of California Common Cause testified in favor of the bill.

Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, did not attend the meeting but said later that he doesn't see how limiting a lunch tab to $10 solves any problem.

Casual, face-to-face meetings in which lawmakers receive information from company or industry officials, without lobbying, are an integral part of the political process, Zaremberg said.

Assemblyman Anthony Adams, a Hesperia Republican who abstained from voting, questioned why a firm that legally can donate $3,600 per election to a lawmaker's campaign should be barred from buying a modest gift.

Blakeslee said campaign contributions are protected by constitutional free-speech rights.

AB 2795 mirrors gift-giving restrictions currently imposed on lobbyists and lobbying firms. The bill would not affect special-interest donations to nonprofit groups to subsidize legislators' job-related travel.

It also would not apply to individuals employed with entities that hire lobbyists.

They could spend personal funds for larger gifts.

"It surprises me that they passed it," Bob Stern, a co-author of the state's Political Reform Act, said of Thursday's vote. "It has a long way to go."

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