Jindal’s ethics plan on track

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Feb 25, 2008

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Despite some setbacks, key parts of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s ethics package appear poised to win final approval, lawmakers and others said.

“I think by and large the governor’s package is going to make its way through the process,” said Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Grosse Tete.

Lawmakers today begin the final days of a three-week special session that Jindal called crucial to changing the way Louisiana does business, and the way the state is viewed.

While the gathering has to end by Saturday, legislative leaders hope to finish earlier, possibly by midweek.

Details of the session’s highest-profile bills are still being hammered out.

However, lawmakers interviewed said three key bills — Jindal calls them the heart of his ethics  legislative package — appear close to final approval in the governor’s first session.

They are:

• House Bill 1, which would require the disclosure of personal finances by most state and local elected government officials and many appointees.
• Senate Bill 1, which would ban lawmakers, their spouses and many state department heads from doing business with the state.
• Senate Bill 8, which would put a $50 cap on the amount of free food and drinks that elected officials can accept from lobbyists per occasion.

Rep. Joel Robideaux, No Party-Lafayette, said the Legislature is on the verge of approving the largest collection of ethics bills in state history.

He noted that, on the final day of the 2007 legislative session, a financial disclosure bill considered less ambitious than this year’s measure died on the House floor.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that what we are passing here, and what is ultimately going to come out, had no chance of coming out even last year,” Robideaux said.

“By the end of the session 90 percent of the bills that the governor wanted are going to be passed out of here in 85 percent fashion that he wanted them in,” Robideaux said.

However, there have also been some notable casualties, including some that were part of the governor’s package.

Bills that appear dead or near legislative death would have banned the use of campaign funds for the relatives of candidates; required the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers to add exceptions to the state ethics code; banned contingency contracts for lobbyists; and allowed public officials to seek ethics advisory opinions without having their names attached to the report.