Star Takes Legislative Leaders To Task For Collective Shrug About Ethics Reform
It's hard to take issue with this editorial in today's Star:
Too many lawmakers are firmly convinced of their right to party — on the dime of groups that wish to influence their votes. And they keep coming up with ways to hide the gifts from public view.
In a response to the audit, the Senate described its “administrator’s fund” as “part of an on-going effort by the Senate to lower costs to the state.”
So, we should be grateful that lawmakers are charging entertainment expenses to lobbyists instead of taxpayers?
Thanks, but no thanks. For all their preaching about self-sufficiency during legislative debates, lawmakers don’t seem to feel obliged to practice it.
To its credit, the Senate did agree to follow some of Montee’s recommendations, such as notifying lobbyists of their responsibility to report donations to the ethics commission.
The House response, on the other hand, is an exercise in defiance.
It curtly notified the auditor that the House has “neither the jurisdiction … nor the legal obligation” to notify lobbyists of their reporting responsibilities. In fact, says the response, it was an “inappropriate violation” to do so.
You know a legislative body has lost its grip on reality when its leaders contend that reminding their benefactors to follow the law would be inappropriate.
What’s really out of line is the constant pursuit of handouts and the ongoing quest to keep the public from connecting the financial dots between lawmakers and lobbyists. Leaders of the House and Senate should use Montee’s audit as a catalyst to clean up their act.
Sadly, Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields thinks that the current system of lobbyists paying for legislators' meals and drinks, Christmas parties, gift cards and country club receptions is good for taxpayers, and Speaker Ron Richard thinks the audit findings constitute a big "non-story."
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