On The Money: Political Payback For Portantino
By Mike Luery
Assembly leaders stand accused tonight of misleading the public about how taxpayer dollars are spent. The accusation comes from Assemblyman Anthony Portantino.
The Pasadena Democrat said that when it comes to numbers – Assembly leaders are failing basic math.
"A secret budget is a corrupt budget," Portantino told Capitol reporters today.
Portantino, the lone Assembly Democrat to vote "No" on the budget – is at war with his own party. And now, eleven members of Portantino's staff are about to disappear – as punishment for alleged overspending by the Assemblyman.
See previous On The Money story here.
The Assembly released some financial data last Friday. But today, a Stanford-based research group called the data misleading, while deceiving the public about how taxpayer money is spent.
"But in total there's under-reporting of $2.75 million dollars, which is really significant," said Dakin Sloss, president of California Common Sense. Sloss compared Assembly payroll data with expenditures and found big discrepancies.
The study shows the Assembly essentially played musical chairs with staffers to hide the real spending.
"Literally individual employees are being changed from one office to another," Sloss stated. "It's 5% of the Assembly Staffers," he added.
After crunching the numbers, California Common Sense says Portantino is not the biggest spender in the Assembly – but actually ranks 37th overall.
Today, Portantino took his case directly to the Assembly Rules Committee – demanding that the Assembly open its books – with full disclosure of all spending.
"Clearly the expenditures to date are only as accurate as the data that we have," said Assembly Rules Chair Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley.
In the end, Portantino's measure, HR 20, was shot down, with the Rules Committee voting for further study. But Portantino insists he will continue to fight
"It's a misuse of power and we've got to get to the bottom of it," Portantino said.
Assembly Speaker John Perez did not respond directly to the charges. Instead, his communications office called Portantino's efforts a "Hail Mary pass while running for Congress." Spokesperson Robin Swanson added, "We are not interested in promoting his drama."
Swanson stated, "He's drawing attention to the fact he was an overspender. And the fact is he is the biggest overspender in the Assembly."
The report from California Common Sense reaches a completely different conclusion, finding that 36 members of the Assembly spent more than Portantino.
Portantino is termed out next year and has said publicly he's considering a run for congress. Speaker Perez reportedly favors another candidate for that position, as noted in this column from Dan Walters.
