You can abuse taxpayer funds, but be warned: You won’t get away with it for more than a decade or two.
Last month, the inspector general for California’s High-Speed Rail Authority reported that consultants on the state’s much-delayed bullet train project had used hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds to pay for “trips to gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge.” Traveling on taxpayer dollars, consultants also “flew first-class and were reimbursed without questioning, in violation of contracts and state policies.”
