The state ethics board is considering rules
that would ban private organizations from funding the governor’s
overseas travel, including private airplanes and luxury hotels that can
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a trip. The governor sends his travel bills to a purported nonprofit
(that shares its office and officers with the Chamber of Commerce) and
claims the accommodations and travel are gifts to his office, not him,
though he and his top staffers enjoy all the perks. The Political
Reform Act never intended to allow a privately-financed group pay to
maintain the governor in luxury, so kudos to the Fair Political
Practices Commission: new rules are needed to make the law stick.