Ethics Reform Bill Step Closer to Adoption

by: Jeremiah

Wed Feb 16, 2011 at 23:33:43 PM EST

West Virginia is one step closer to a meaningful reform of the State's ethics laws.  Last year the House passed the ethics reform legislation but the bill did not make it out of the Senate.  Senator Klempa, who supported the bill last year in the House is quoted in the Gazette:

As politicians, I believe we ought to walk around with NASCAR uniforms, so everybody knows who our sponsors are.

A great deal of credit should be given to House Speaker Rick Thompson and Acting Senate President Jeff Kessler's Judiciary team for pushing the bill through the process.  The State should not stop here.  Democrat or Republican, cleaning up WV politics should be a priority for all of us.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, who ranked WV poorly in a 2008 grading of State ethics laws, states on their website:

If the bill passes the state senate and becomes law, West Virginia, which failed our survey last year with only 45 points, could potentially move up the ranks to number 26 on the list, tying with Florida. Despite the significant jump, however, the state would still receive a D grade from the Center, mostly due to a complete lack of client and real property ownership information from legislators, neither of which seem to be addressed in the current proposal.

http://www.publicintegrity.org...