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Blindfolding the public

05/30/01

The assault on open government continues in Columbus.

In an arrogant display of contempt for open government, an item was inserted into the proposed state budget on Sunday that would make it easier to hide from public disclosure the money lobbyists spend on legislators at professional conferences.

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to remember a state budget as blatantly misused as a vehicle to insulate government from public scrutiny.

This latest insult is truly outrageous. The last people who deserve further protection against financial-disclosure requirements are legislators or lobbyists.

Lobbyists pay for special access to lawmakers. They entertain with meals, trips, cash and educational conferences. The public has every right to know who is buying access and who is selling.

To suggest that many lawmakers skip potentially useful lobbyist-sponsored functions because of reporting requirements, as Sen. President Richard Finan has, is patently ridiculous.

After the "honoraria" and ethics scandals in the General Assembly in the early 1990s, a number of measures were passed creating stricter reporting requirements and opening records.

Before the beefed-up reporting requirements, it was common for key legislators to be plied with trips disguised as political functions and checks for "speaking engagements" that often turned out to be nothing more than payments for quick appearances before special-interest groups.

The reforms passed in 1994 put, among other things, a meal cap on how much lobbyist could spend on each legislator annually. The reforms banned honoraria and required all elected officials earning more than $16,000 annually to disclose all sources of income.

Since then, reporting laws have been circumvented by special-interest representatives not registered as lobbyists, who still can give free trips and gifts to legislators.

Now we see an effort to turn back the clock to a time when Ohio had some of the weakest reporting laws in the country.

Legislators should not let that happen. And if they fail to do their clear duty to Ohioans, Gov. Bob Taft should use the veto pen to do his.

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