Special to NKyTribune
With changes enacted by the 2014 General Assembly, Kentucky has some of the nation’s strongest government ethics and accountability laws, according to a national survey of state laws.
Only three states – Alaska, California, and Connecticut – received higher grades than Kentucky in the 2015 State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of all 50 state governments by The Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity.
This year’s results show a significant improvement for Kentucky, which leaped to the top tier of the list after ranking 19th among the 50 states in the previous Integrity Investigation, compiled in 2012.
Credit for much of the improvement is attributed to the 2014 General Assembly, which adopted important changes in the Code of Legislative Ethics, including a ban on lobbyist-funded travel for legislators, a ban on lobbyists buying meals for individual legislators, and a ban on in-session campaign contributions from PACs and employers of lobbyists.
The survey measures hundreds of variables in all three branches of state government to compile transparency and accountability grades, and Kentucky scored particularly well on several aspects of legislative ethics.
For example, Kentucky’s system of “political financing” was ranked fourth in the nation, based in part on the year-round ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists, and the 2014 ethics code amendment that bans employers of lobbyists from contributing during legislative sessions.
Kentucky also received high scores in the “legislative accountability” category, finishing fifth nationally. “That lofty ranking stems in part from tightened ethics laws, which the legislature also updated in 2014 to ban lawmakers from accepting even a cup of coffee from lobbyists,” according to The Center for Public Integrity.
Additionally, the state scored well for requiring spending reports from lobbyists and their employers, and providing public access to those lobbying disclosure documents, which are available within a reasonable time and at no cost to citizens, and for imposing penalties as necessary when lobbying reporting requirements are violated. The easy access that Kentuckians have to legislators’ financial disclosure statements also earned the state a high score on the survey.
Kentucky was also awarded the highest scores possible on questions relating to legislators’ full compliance with the strict laws governing gifts and hospitality, and compliance with the ethics code’s two-year “revolving door” ban on former legislators becoming lobbyists in the private sector.
Ethics Reporter is a publication of the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. It is reprinted with permission.
See NKyTribune’s earlier detailed story from the Center for Public Integrity.