Ethics: It's time to act

Pond

Moses

Illustration by Gregg Bender | The Journal Gazette

Ethics bills

Senate Bill 59: Reduces from $100 to $25 the minimum reportable amount for total daily gifts to a legislator or a legislative employee given by a registered lobbyist or a single gift received by a legislator or legislative candidate.

Senate Bill 165: Provides that an individual who has served as a member of the General Assembly may not register as a legislative branch lobbyist during the period that ends one year after the date the legislator leaves.

House Bill 1063: Provides that a member of the General Assembly, a candidate for a legislative office, an officer or employee of the General Assembly or a member of the immediate family of any of those individuals may not accept a gift from a lobbyist. Provides that a lobbyist may not give a gift to any of these persons. Provides that violations of any of the prohibitions on giving or accepting gifts is a Class B misdemeanor. Provides that an individual who has served as a member of the General Assembly may not register as a legislative branch lobbyist during the period that ends two years after the date that the individual ceases to be a member.

The bill’s supporters

“I think it’s just good public policy. It’s not a partisan bill – it’s a good-government bill.”

“(Legislators-turned-lobbyists) know our names, they know what kind of district we come from, they know what our interests are – they come in knowing all 150 legislators. And they get paid about 10 times what a legislator gets paid.”

– Rep. Phyllis Pond

R-New Haven

“Indiana lobbying laws are a scandal waiting to happen. At a minimum, any expenditure for lobbying purposes should be required to be reported. If we just knew who and how our legislators were being influenced, citizens could vote with full knowledge.”

– Rep. Win Moses

D-Fort Wayne

Tax restructuring? A daunting task. Complicated, nuanced, loaded with unintended consequences.

Ethics reform? A no-brainer. Simple to write, simple to comprehend.

So, which will happen in the current session of the Indiana General Assembly?

Lawmakers know how unhappy Hoosiers are about property taxes. Now they need to hear how we Hoosiers feel about the perks and privileges that ultimately influence those bills. A legislative seat carries with it prime seats alongside lobbyists at Colts and Pacers games, at college games in Bloomington and West Lafayette. It yields Indy 500 tickets and dinners at Indianapolis’ expensive St. Elmo Steak House.

And here’s where the legislators have no real defense: the part-time job can convert easily and immediately to a well-compensated post in a powerful lobbying firm.

Stricter ethics regulations don’t require months of public testimony, fiscal analysis and debate. Move it from committee and put it to a vote. Require legislators to go on record for or against higher ethical standards.

Bills are in place: Two have been filed in the Senate, and in the House one incorporates both the gift limits and lobbying restrictions of the Senate bills. The latter, House Bill 1063, is the strongest. Co-authored by Phyllis Pond, R-New Haven, and John Day, D-Indianapolis, it would prohibit all gifts from lobbyists and would set a two-year restriction on former lawmakers who want to register as lobbyists. Fort Wayne Democrat Win Moses signed on as a co-sponsor last week.

When the powerful House Ways and Means Committee met at South Side High School on Jan. 9 to hear testimony on the governor’s tax proposal, lobbyist Robert Kuzman was front and center as the lawmakers gathered. Just last spring, Kuzman, a Crown Point Democrat, was the committee’s vice chairman. Now he has relocated to Indianapolis and lobbies former colleagues on behalf of clients for the Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller, many of whom have a big stake in state tax policy.

Kuzman moved from the House floor to Statehouse hallways already crowded with former lawmakers, including Thomas Fruechtenicht, Matt Whetstone, Phil Bainbridge, Markt Lytle, Michael Smith, Mike Phillips, Marc Carmichael, Sam Turpin, Brian Hasler, Pat Kiely and Paul Mannweiler.

Gift restrictions are another easy call. Lawmakers insist they aren’t influenced by meals, game tickets and trips paid for by businesses. But the best way to prove it is to stop accepting them. What better way to demonstrate empathy for tax-strapped constituents than to remove all doubt of undue influence? And trust us: The failure of legislators to use free tickets to a basketball game at a school whose funding they are deciding will not be lamented, their presence not missed.

The odds aren’t good for the legislation. The Senate lobbying bill, with only a one-year “cooling-off” period, met opposition Wednesday in the Commerce and Public Policy Committee. The committee chairman said the bill needed its own cooling-off period. He didn’t call it for a vote, essentially assigning it to oblivion.

Stricter ethics laws need no more consideration. Legislators who think otherwise should look to the lobbyist scandals in Alaska and Tennessee to see how their own reputations might be tarnished by misdeeds in their midst. They can enhance the General Assembly’s reputation with voters by first approving strict and straightforward restrictions on gifts and lobbying. Then they can get to the hard work of fixing property taxes.

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