California lawmakers turn perks into profit

The Orange County Register’s Brian Joseph exposes how overlapping laws allow California state lawmakers to leverage their tax-free travel allowance to buy homes, secure tax deductions and sometimes pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. “This legal patchwork has created a benefit legislators in other states rarely see and blurred the lines between allowance and income.” The Register documents lawmakers who declared homes in Sacramento as their principal residence and then collected allowance to cover their living expenses at the State Capitol as if they were away from home.