Let the Sunshine In
Indiana lawmakers are tripping over themselves to offer up ethics reform proposals. House Speaker Pat Bauer offered up a plan last year and Senate Republicans put out a proposal as well.
The measures include “cooling off” periods where lawmakers would have to wait for a year or so before going to professionally lobby their former counterparts. There’s disclosures of gifts of more than $50 in value, limits on fund-raising on the Executive branch, bans on conflicts of interests where forms lobby multiple sides of an issue, requiring University officials to register as lobbyists and there would be a ban of elected officials from appearing in most public service announcements paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Frankly, I think this is all a bit much. What I see happening is a race to see who can be “the most ethical” lawmaker while leaving loopholes big enough to drive a 767 through. The best reform is full disclosure and educating a lazy public to use that information to make informed decisions. Although it’s nice to think of the lobbyist and the lawmaker having steak dinner in a smoke-filled back room while something sinister is going on, real life doesn’t work that way. In real life a lot of lobbyists enjoy buying lunch because they get reimbursed by the clients.
Also in real life, if you sit down and actually talk to a lobbyist they will complain about being all but “shaken down” for campaign contributions by some lawmakers who don’t know when to quit. So perhaps a rule banning campaign contributions registered lobbyists and advocacy groups might be the way to go? I think I just heard a pin drop.
Take it from the guy from Illinois where Governors usually end up in jail, Indiana’s “ethical” climate is nowhere near as bad as some people would like to think it is. If you want more reform, then simply do more disclosure. Mandate that within 72 hours of receiving any donation or gift, lawmakers must disclose it and the information should be put on the Internet where everyone can see it. And if you want a cooling off period, how about a thawing off period instead, where if a lawmaker leaves the General Assembly to go lobby, they can’t do it until the end of the biennium.
And while we’re at it, let’s ban local governments from lobbying the legislature. The main reason why government reform has stalled is because lawmakers get earfuls and possible primary challenges from the locals back home if they push reform too far?
Sunshine is always the best disinfectant and putting limits on democracy has never been a good idea. Citizens, whether they belong to a local not-for-profit or big law firm, have the right to address their government with their grievances. Now all this could be solved with public funding of political campaigns, but seeing how no one is going down that road, open the curtains and let the sunshine in.
