At least one 2306 student is focusing on ethics reform in the recent legislative session - which is usually shorthand for campaign finance.
Though the governor named ethics reform as one of his priorities, its didn't happen. Unless the goal was to weaken exiting laws. That's the assessment of what the legislature did according to the Chair of the Texas Ethics Commission.
- Click here for the article.
Though the governor named ethics reform as one of his priorities, its didn't happen. Unless the goal was to weaken exiting laws. That's the assessment of what the legislature did according to the Chair of the Texas Ethics Commission.
- Click here for the article.
“If there was any ethics reform, it was in reverse,” Paul Hobby, chairman of the Texas Ethics Commission, said Thursday at a public meeting that came less than 10 days after lawmakers adjourned their 84th session with the following accomplishments:
- Creating a new loophole to protect lawmaker spouses from certain financial disclosure- Giving themselves and state bureaucrats hometown prosecution when they're accused of white-collar crimes in Austin- Failing to agree on and pass sweeping ethics reform
“There are some bills on the governor’s desk that just scare me to death,” Commissioner Jim Clancy, the body’s former chairman, said at the meeting.
The bipartisan commissioners largely focused on Thursday on measures awaiting Abbott’s signature that would open up a “spousal loophole” allowing politicians to shield information about their spouses’ financial holdings.
The proposals would essentially repeal an agency rule, drafted last year in the wake of ethics violations by a former House member, that spells out what must be included in personal financial statements filed by the governor, members of the Legislature and other high-ranking state officials – including certain information about their spouses’ property and financial activity.
The Tribune previously discussed the collapse of ethics reform here.
The legislature seems to have made it easier to keep financial information secret, meaning that the general public has little idea what interests are influencing legislators.
- Click here for all proposal made regarding ethics this past session.
