California lawmakers will soon end their summer recess and return to Sacramento for the final, most consequential month of the legislative year. August is when the Legislature determines the fate of hundreds of bills that have been snaking through the Capitol all year, making decisions that may affect millions of Californians as well as many businesses regulated by the state. It’s the month when lobbyists are working hardest to sway lawmakers — and that makes it a ripe time for sleazy politics.
It’s hard to see the upcoming “Technology Policy Summit” as anything other than that. Shortly after business resumes in Sacramento on Aug. 1, select tech lobbyists have been invited by a powerful assemblyman to spend two days schmoozing with lawmakers at a wine country resort in the Napa Valley. Of course, there is a price.
For a $35,000 donation to a foundation affiliated with the Legislature’s “tech caucus” — a bipartisan group helmed by Democratic Assemblymember Evan Low from Silicon Valley — companies can pick a topic they want to brief lawmakers on and designate an executive or lobbyist to moderate the discussion. For $20,000, a donor can speak on a panel, according to a copy of the invitation I obtained. The cheap seats are $10,000 just to attend the two-day event. (Though the invitation does not specify whom donors should pay, I have confirmed that the event is sponsored by the Foundation for California’s Technology and Innovation Economy, which is the nonprofit affiliated with the tech caucus and includes Low’s chief of staff on its board.)
