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short of true
ethics reform
IThe North Carolina House, Senate and Gov. Mike Easley are all working on tougher ethics legislation to police members of the executive branch and the General Assembly.
The House was headed in the right direction until some members decided in the final version of House bill that the threshold of reportable gifts from non-lobbyists should be raised to $1,000. Some supporters of the change said gifts under $1,000 wouldn’t have any influence on how they vote. We find that a little hard to swallow.
Nevertheless, there are notable elements in the House and Senate bills that should improve ethics. Both the House and Senate bills ban gifts from lobbyists and their clients of more than $10 and would impose criminal penalties for lying about gifts.
Also, there are provisions to prevent politicians from appearing in so-called “public service” announcements, which often are no more than thinly veiled campaign ads.
Ethics reform has been a long time coming. Too many people believe that legislators benefit a great deal financially from cushy relationships with lobbyists and campaign donors. Recent indictments at both the state and national levels have proven that ethics is a problem, so it’s admirable that an effort is being made to strengthen the rules.
That’s why the watering down in the House is ill-timed.
The Senate, at the behest of Gov. Easley, wants to include language to establish an independent ethics committee that would make recommendations to the House or Senate once an investigation into alleged breaches is concluded. House members resisted this and voted in its version to police themselves.
The jostling over a final version is ongoing. Though some legislators seem to find the ethics legislation overbearing and onerous, restoring the public’s trust in their public officials should be job one in Raleigh this spring.
A tough ethics law would go a long way in achieving this.