Unemployment in the state has hit 12.2%.  The political class seems incapable of dealing with a budget gap larger than the entire annual budget of most other states.  A water crisis has hit the most critical agricultural area, thanks to ill-conceived federal intervention, which means that revenues will drop and unemployment rise even further.  Schools are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.  What should state legislators do in this crisis?

If you’re from California, the choice is easy — take a junket to Denmark and Spain!

A flock of state legislators is winging it to Denmark and Spain during the next 19 days to see how Europeans govern, further delaying long-promised action back home on California’s water-supply problems and help for cash-strapped schools.

Seven state senators are heading overseas this week, some having left Thursday, on a trip that includes stops in Copenhagen, Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona. They plan to study Spain’s national water system and Scandinavian environmental programs, and to promote trade between California and Catalonia, according to a statement from the Senate Office of International Relations, which is organizing the trip.

Six other legislators are hoping to visit China and Korea to discuss business issues, but they are likely to wait until after the special session wraps up, aides said.

Actually, California legislators give a pretty good imitation of European governance already, which is why their budget is $26 billion in deficit and Californians spend more than 30% of their GDP on regulation.  As tax activist Lew Uhler noted, they don’t need to go to Spain and Denmark to learn how to build dams or lay a pipe, either.  It’s a handy excuse to take their spouses on a European vacation, mostly paid by their campaign committees, which means that they get to have a free three-week vacation while California melts down into collapse.

Who are the European and Asia Vacationers?

• Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach)
• Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles)
• Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills)
• Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield)
• Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord)
• Robert Huff (R-Diamond Bar)
• Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego)
• Louis Correa (D-Santa Ana) (Asia only)
• Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) (Asia only)

If these California legislators want to study European governance, California has many fine resources in its universities that can provide all of the information needed at the moment.  If they want a taste of foreign lands, let me suggest the missions in California, the hamlet of Solvang, and Chinatown in San Francisco.  If not completely authentic, it would at least keep their money in the state of California, where it is most needed, and perhaps save a job or two in this economy.

California deserves real legislators offering real solutions to a crisis, not Otter from Animal House.