BusinessReport.com

State legislators should be kicking themselves by now for not taking the relatively mild ethics cure offered to them last year. That’s because the new governor is preparing a much stronger dose of anti-corruption medicine that will be harder for them to swallow. But swallow they will.

Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal told members of his transition team last month he is “staking his governorship” on passing a package of tough ethics laws in a special session early next year, said one who was there.

Rarely does an incoming governor who lays it on the line like that not get most of what he wants. Especially one who is devoting a special session to the issue so that it cannot be compromised by the need to pass other legislation. And who has told legislators they cannot get into the cookie jar of the billion-dollar surplus until they eat their ethics vegetables.

Lawmakers fooled no one last year with their charade debate over how far-reaching of an income disclosure requirement they should put on themselves and other public officials. The Senate refused to exclude local officeholders, the House refused to include them, and no one seemed surprised or disappointed when the stalled bill died on the last day of the session.

Yet what legislators, particularly Democrats, unwittingly accomplished was to tee up the issue perfectly for candidate Jindal, who made it a compelling but safe platform plank, as did other Republican candidates.

Had legislators simply agreed to disclose their income sources and amounts, in broad ranges, it would have taken the air out of the issue for Jindal. Instead, having so elevated the cause and now dedicating a special session to it, the new governor can hardly be satisfied with merely passing last year’s ethics bill.

Besides more detailed income disclosure, he wants legislation that would prohibit legislators or companies they own from holding contracts with state agencies, bar legislators from working as lobbyists or governmental consultants, require more detailed information from lobbyists on their clients and expenses and impose criminal sanctions for breaking ethics laws.

Those measures will cause plenty of heartburn on both sides of the rail. Lobbyists last session rallied to snuff out bills to toughen reporting requirements. A no-exceptions prohibition on doing business with the state would hit a number of lawmakers in their pocketbooks, none more so than a leading candidate for Senate president, Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, who owns a nursing home that received $2.4 million in Medicaid payments last year. No doubt legislators and lobbyists will carp that Jindal’s new proposals are too burdensome and unworkable, though similar rules seem to work just fine in many other states.

So where is the problem? A review of news stories from recent years shows that day-to-day public corruption emanates far less from the State Capitol than from local governments. Jindal said as much when, after campaigning against the state’s “culture of corruption,” he recently praised Gov. Kathleen Blanco for running a “scandal-free administration.”

Which is it? More than a criminal matter, ethics seems to be an image problem for state government, though a real problem it is, especially when the bad image hinders recruiting businesses to locate here. The governor-elect’s plan has to go beyond what looks good to what makes a difference and what works with part-time legislators with full-time jobs and businesses.

For instance, would a ban on legislators being governmental consultants bar a lawmaker who is an accountant from appealing a client’s tax bill to the Department of Revenue? Should a legislator who is a lawyer or a doctor have to disclose if he or she has a lobbyist for a client or a patient, despite privacy concerns?

To smoke out the devils in the details, Jindal has appointed two business leaders and former legislators, Sean Reilly of Baton Rouge and Virginia Shehee of Shreveport, both Democrats, to chair hearings around the state on citizens’ concerns and then to craft legislation to be ready for consideration shortly after he takes office.

Now that Jindal has staked his governorship on it, passing sweeping ethics changes to improve the state’s image is important, but so is getting it right in the real world.