Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he's not concerned about pressing the Lottery to pay back $46,336 spent on a staff party last fall.
“I don’t know if it should be paid back," Schwarzenegger said Friday. "I think we should really do everything we can not to let this happen again. Cause we don’t want to waste the taxpayers’ money on those kinds of things."
Schwarzenegger said he understood the argument for improving morale in a state agency he has proposed to privatize.
“There is always the question: Does something like this help to bring more revenues in?” he said. “Some people think: They say look, I did a party to bring everybody up and celebrate and let them know what a great job they did. And they now will work harder because of it and they will be better for the state of California.”
“There’s a good question about all of this,” he added.
State Controller John Chiang has pressed California Lottery Director Joan Borucki to repay the money, which could have gone toward schools.
Last year Borucki authorized an elaborate employee recognition dinner featuring a Nintendo Wii, iPods and other prizes. The controller warned Borucki in January that she could be held liable for unallowable costs related to the event.
Borucki has since testified that the Lottery will request “a legal opinion from the attorney general’s office on the legality of the expenditures for the employee recognition event.” But the attorney general’s office has said it never received a formal request.
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