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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Legislative Benefits - More on: "Insulted" legislators; disrespected citizens

Updating this ILB entry from January 27th, several papers today weigh in with editorials about the Senate committee's reaction to testimony on SB 165.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, this editorial titled "Waiting for Scandal" :

Pity the poor Indiana lawmakers whose feelings are so sensitive as to be hurt by the mere suggestion of conflicts of interest. Imagine how offended they will be when inevitable scandal rocks the Statehouse and voters point to the next example of broken public trust.

Sen. Marvin Riegsecker, R-Goshen, might not know about an Indiana lobbyist scandal that rocked the General Assembly and sent two lawmakers to prison. He might have missed a later episode where a House Ways and Means Committee chairman was entangled in an ugly incident involving consulting fees and a riverboat contractor. Surely, he missed the lobbyist scandal in Alaska, where legislators on the take from an oil company jokingly claimed membership in the “Corrupt Bastards Club.”

How else to explain why Riegsecker, chairman of the Senate Public Policy Committee, refused to even call Senate Bill 165 for a vote? The legislation would require a reasonable one-year cooling-off period before former lawmakers are allowed to register as lobbyists before the General Assembly.

But testimony on behalf of the bill angered the chairman. Riegsecker said he and other committee members were offended by comments that “we’re taking money under the table.”

Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, agreed.

“The testimony was so nasty and mean and personal that the committee members were furious,” she told the Indianapolis Star. “It was a very unpleasant confrontation. That’s not how you get legislation passed around here.”

Maybe not. It seems to be more effective to hire a former lawmaker, whose familiarity with the process and the legislators gives them advantage over members of the general public calling for higher ethical standards. Most other states have already enacted legislation to restrict lobbying by former lawmakers.

Fortunately, there are some legislators with thicker skins and a more realistic view of the public’s perception of elected officials. Reps. Phyllis Pond of New Haven and Win Moses of Fort Wayne were co-authors of House Bill 1063, which would restrict legislators from returning as lobbyists for two years after leaving office. Unfortunately, their bill died in committee. [ILB note: Rep. Day authored the House bill, it was assigned to Rules and Legislative Procedures (which the ILB would consider a graveyard for this type of legislation) by the Speaker. The Senate bill was authored by Senator Miller, Senators Charbonneau and Lubbers were also on the bill.]

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, also seems to get it.

“I do think we’re going to have to take a hard look at how Indiana compares to other states and ultimately address particularly the issue of how soon you can go out into the hall and lobby,” he told the Star.

There’s no reason the tighter restrictions couldn’t be approved immediately – before easily offended lawmakers have a real reason to be offended by legislative misbehavior.

From the Indianapolis Star, this editorial titled "'Offended' lawmakers defend insulting system":
A modest measure to restrict how fast state legislators can move into the lobbying business has been killed because legislators claim they're offended at the insinuation they have anything but the purest of intentions.

Very principled of them. No law should be considered that might implicitly impugn the motives of those covered. Let's extend the logic.

Certification of car insurance before receiving license plates? Why, who would be so negligent as to drive around without insurance?

Pollution regulation? Are we implying that any Hoosier industrialist, farmer or motorist would fail to protect the air and water?

Campaign finance reporting? Whose business is it where a candidate's money comes from? Surely he's good people.

You catch our drift. When Sen. Marvin Riegsecker, R-Goshen, deep-sixed a bill to make legislators wait a year after leaving office before becoming lobbyists, he huffed and puffed about offended dignity, with an effect as weak as the lobbying laws themselves.

Riegsecker, chairman of the Public Policy Committee, said the public's enthusiastic support for Indianapolis Republican Patricia Miller's bill "angered my fellow senators" -- and passage was unlikely anyway.

The latter statement is believable enough. Efforts to make the Indiana General Assembly less cozy for special-interest lobbyists, more than 30 of whom are former legislators, rarely find much traction. But the notion put forth by legislators and legislators-turned-lobbyists that self-interest and privileged access are just cynical myths is a true insult -- to the taxpayer's intelligence.

In case our indignant elected officials and former elected officials have not noticed, more than half the states have enacted one- or two-year cooling-off periods between jumps from legislator to lobbyist.
The executive branch of this state government, at the behest of Gov. Mitch Daniels, bars former employees from lobbying former colleagues for a year after entering the private sector. Senate President Pro Tempore David Long acknowledges the legislature is going to have to face the issue itself some day. But that day is not here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 29, 2008 07:49 AM
Posted to Legislative Benefits