Best behavior
Monday, July 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
The 11th-hour passage of a state ethics reform bill is good news for cleaner government, one more responsive to the people It will take several months, or longer, to tell just how effective this year’s state government ethics reform will be. But the drive by the state’s lawmakers to pass some measure of reform is proof that the General Assembly listened to North Carolinians who wanted to shield their government more securely from special interest groups and their lobbyists. The effort was led in particular by Sens. Dan Clodfelter of Charlotte and Tony Rand of Fayetteville, and by Reps. Joe Hackney of Chapel Hill and Deborah Ross of Raleigh in the House.
Long-needed improvements came in the form of individual laws passed as the legislative session proceeded this year. But the most important changes were folded into the the State Government Ethics Act, an omnibus bill passed in the final hours before adjournment early Friday.
Separate laws forbid legislators from using campaign funds for personal use. They end the unsavory practice of campaign donors handing over checks with blank payee lines, and require political donors of $50 or more to publicly disclose their gifts. Those and others provide a better scrubbing of the state’s political process. (more…)
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