Our View: Lawmakers tighten ethics rules but give themselves a big gift: Darkness.
Monday, July 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
After the sweeping promises we heard from lawmakers when the General Assembly convened this year, the ethics-reform package that squeaked through hours before adjournment is a disappointment.
There is genuine reform in it, some important. But it was mostly incremental, and in one case, a step backward.
About that step: Through the efforts of Fayetteville’s Tony Rand, the Senate majority leader, the final ethics bill lets the newly created Independent Ethics Commission do its business in the dark. The commission will oversee all three branches of government for breaches of ethics law. That’s good, but the panel is weak, with power only to screen complaints and find probable cause. Complaints then must be passed to the legislative ethics committee (the fox guarding the henhouse).
It is utterly inappropriate that the commission will operate in secrecy. Rand, who has championed open government, did an about-face. We get his concern — undoubtedly shared by his fellow lawmakers — that unfounded, irresponsible allegations could cause harm. But our legal system has operated openly for centuries and it has remedies for frivolous accusations. Lawmakers might know that. Hiding all ethics investigations is an insult to the principles of openness at the core of the people’s government. It is an invitation to whitewashing and cover-up. Reversing that provision should be the next session’s first order of business (but, venturing a guess, it won’t be).
There are many positive changes in the lobbying and ethics reform bill. It bans direct contributions to candidates from lobbyists, although it leaves them other ways to raise campaign cash for politicians.
The bill also restricts gifts to lawmakers and other state officials and requires more financial disclosure from lobbyists and state officials. An ethics education program for legislators and state officials is also part of the legislation.
Other campaign-finance reforms include a ban on personal use of campaign funds, anonymous contributions and donation of checks with blank payee lines — common practices among many legislators. Committees that produce political “issue” ads (called “527s” for the federal statute that allows them) also face increased regulation. (more…)
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