Jindal praises session

• By MARSHA SHULER AND MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Feb 27, 2008 - Page: 1A

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The Legislature adjourned Tuesday after handing Gov. Bobby Jindal victory on the core pieces of his ethics agenda.

“This Legislature has hit an absolute home run for the people of Louisiana,” Jindal said at a session-ending news conference.

“I’m looking forward to signing these bills into law.”

Some of the key bills headed to Jindal’s desk would require most elected and many appointed officials to publicly disclose their personal finances; would ban legislators and some governor’s appointees from having state contracts; and would expose lobbyist dealings to more public scrutiny.

Other bills would limit the wining and dining of public officials by those seeking to influence them as well as would restrict free tickets to many sporting and cultural events.

Since his campaign last year, Jindal has repeatedly said Louisiana’s ethics law needed rewriting to improve the state’s image. He pointed to rankings by two national groups as proof.

“This wasn’t about ranking and points,” Jindal said. The changes would help state economic development efforts, he said.

With the first special session at an end, Jindal said he will call a second special session starting March 9 to address more tax relief to businesses.

Though the ethics measures were substantially rewritten, the House and the Senate ratified compromises on a series of bills that gave Jindal much of what he wanted when he called the Legislature into a special session Feb. 10 to focus on changing the state’s ethics laws.

Jindal suffered some losses but proclaimed the session “a complete victory” when it came to key measures. He leaves today on a statewide tour to tout his success.

Jindal lost a few fights, including a bill that would take away taxpayer-funded retirement benefits for public officials convicted crimes related to their office and forbidding candidates from hiring family members for their campaigns.

Other initiatives were watered down.

For instance, House Bill 1 started off requiring far more detailed disclosure of personal finances. But the measure was amended during the process to include three levels of reporting, each with progressively less information.