Posted on 02/05/2006 8:03:22 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - You may have a better chance of bumping into a legislator in Monterey, Napa or Simi Valley than at the state Capitol this week.
Three of the Legislature's four party caucuses are meeting away from Sacramento to discuss the state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's public works plan and other issues.
Assembly Democrats are going to Monterey for three days starting Monday.
Their Republican counterparts will make a three-day pilgrimage to the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley, arriving in time to have chocolate cake on Monday as part of the celebration of the late president's 95th birthday.
Senate Republicans will meet in Napa on Wednesday and Thursday.
Senate Democrats will be sticking around the Capitol, more or less. They held a one-day retreat in November in Beverly Hills.
The Senate will meet on Monday and take up a bill extending state coverage of prescription drug costs for low-income seniors transferring from the Medi-Cal to Medicare programs. There will also be a half dozen Senate committee hearings during the week, but the Assembly has shut down until Friday.
The Senate hearings will include more sessions on different aspects of Schwarzenegger's $222.6 billion public works program.
There will also be hearings on electronic voting machines' reliability, the impact of federal budget cuts on the poor and the controversy surrounding pay and perks for University of California executives.
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, said the annual retreats give legislative leaders a chance to get their followers "undivided attention."
"The idea is to get them out of (Sacramento)," he said. "If there here, they're going to get interrupted. They get phone calls."
His caucus will hear presentations from Schwarzenegger administration officials, the Legislature's budget analyst and Wall Street experts brought in to discuss the "nuts and bolts" of the $68 billion in state bonds Schwarzenegger wants to sell to help pay for his public works program.
Assembly Democrats will also have discussions about Schwarzenegger's bond proposals and about how to put together the next state budget, said Vince Duffy, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.
"It's going to be a real working retreat," he said.
But lawmakers with some time on their hands could slip away to nearby Pebble Beach to watch practice rounds of the AT&T National Pro-Am golf tournament, which start Monday. The tournament itself begins Thursday.
The retreats won't shut down lawmakers' campaign fund-raising efforts. There are at least 11 fund-raising events scheduled this week, most of them in Sacramento, where legislators can seek donations from the businesses and groups that lobby at the Capitol.
And lawmakers will be able to tap the state treasury for at least part of their travel costs because the retreats are considered legislative business, said Greg Schmidt, the Senate's secretary.
Lawmakers receive $153 a day in expense money when they're in session in Sacramento, but they can get more when they travel on legislative business.
Senators going to Napa will get about $180 a day, Schmidt said.
Assembly Republicans heading to Simi Valley can count on $234 a day for expenses, but Assembly Democrats will be held to $153 a day because they'll have lower lodging costs than the Republicans, said Jon Waldie, the Assembly's chief administrative officer.
All we want is the PORK.
How much gasoline will they waste?
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