Moonlighting, Unreported Funds Revelations Prompt Legislation

Moonlighting, Unreported Funds Revelations Prompt Legislation
New revelations about the use of taxpayer dollars by California state agencies are prompting two new bills from lawmakers who say the practices are inappropriate.

By  Ben Adler, Capitol Public Radio

Wednesday, January 30, 2013
There are two recent revelations that have lawmakers upset.  First, the discovery of $3.6 million dollars of unreported money at CalFire that reportedly paid for - among other things - a conference at a Pismo Beach resort.  It's a case similar to last year's State Parks scandal.  Democratic State Senator Richard Roth is proposing legislation that would hold state workers who knowingly misrepresent financial information to be criminally and civilly liable.

The second revelation involves the practice known as "moonlighting."  That's where a salaried manager at a state agency who can't earn overtime works a second, hourly-wage job at the same agency to earn extra money.  A Sacramento Bee investigation found several hundred state workers moonlighting in nearly a dozen different departments.  Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell's new bill would ban that practice.

Listen to the news story here: http://www.capradio.org/articles/2013/01/30/moonlighting,-unreported-funds-revelations-prompt-legislation