Subject: More "Conflict of Interest" (guru)..
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 033714 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
.........These guys should study the U.S./Canadian science community --
particularly the EMF research.....!!!
Hope everybody has found the new "Conflicts" file on my website.....
(Be sure you read the editorial by Dr. Marcia Angell....)
Roy Beavers (EMFguru) You gotta SHOWME -- I'm from Missouri....
roy@emfguru.com
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
NEW!!! Website... http://emfguru.com
...................People are more important than profits.................
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01:32 PM ET 05/20/00
Study Explores Conflict of Interest
By ROBERT TANNER=
Associated Press Writer=
NEW YORK (AP) _ Across the nation, thousands of state
legislators are mixing personal and government business, despite
conflict-of-interest and disclosure laws that discourage it,
according to a study released Sunday.
The Center for Public Integrity found that at least one in five
legislators help regulate their own business or professional
interests, have financial ties to organizations that lobby state
government, and may receive income from agencies they oversee.
``You'd better watch these people very closely. Not all of them
are working for the public interest. Some of them are feathering
their own nests,'' said Charles Lewis, the center's director. ``I
don't think we were prepared for the unabashed audacity of these
people to do personal business along with what they conceive to be
their constituents' business.''
Most legislators, most of them part-timers, see no conflict
between the jobs they do to make a living and the work they do in
the statehouse. They say their personal interests don't affect
their votes.
``We've got pharmacists who pass pharmacy bills, farmers who
pass agriculture bills and lawyers who pass law bills,'' Alabama
Rep. John Rogers told the center. ``I don't see it cause any
conflicts.''
The center said that Rogers, director of minority affairs at the
University of Alabama-Birmingham, sponsored a bill providing $30
million in bonds to renovate a university hall. He did not make
public his job in annual financial disclosures filed with the
state, as required.
The center _ nonprofit and nonpartisan _ analyzed the financial
disclosures of more than 5,700 lawmakers from last year, the most
recent year available. Their researchers also pored over news
accounts and talked with legislators, political observers,
government and business officials.
The center found that, on average:
_ One in four legislators sat on a statehouse committee that
regulated the lawmakers' own professional or business interests.
_ At least 18 percent had financial ties to businesses or
organizations that lobby state government.
_ Nearly one in four received income from another government
agency, often from agencies the legislature funds.
The center concluded that, due to weak laws and loopholes, the
potential for conflicts may be even greater. Three states _ Idaho,
Michigan and Vermont _ do not even require lawmakers to reveal
private financial interests. States generally bar conflicts of
interest, but vary in how they define it and how they handle it.
The survey did not address how or how many legislators had been
punished for conflicts of interest.
Alan Rosenthal, a professor at Rutgers University's Eagleton
Institute of Politics, questioned whether the study actually showed
anything wrong. State governments are built on citizen-legislators,
he said, and state policy depends on their knowledge.
``This is where people have interests, and where they also have
some competence. This is where they can make a contribution,''
Rosenthal said.
Conflicts of interest a real concern, but it's unfair to suggest
that lawmakers are seeking personal gain solely because they have
personal financial interests, he said.
Others, like political science Professor G. Terry Madonna,
director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at
Millersville University in Pennsylvania, believe the public needs
to know more about the potential of those conflicts.
He encourages strict disclosure laws and the elimination of
loopholes, but he concedes, ``it's unreasonable and impractical to
remove all these ties.''
Lawmakers serve part-time in all but nine states. Part-time
salaries average $18,000. Full-time salaries average $57,000.
``If they preclude us from making a living, they're going to end
up with retirees and rich folks serving,'' State Sen. John Land of
South Carolina told the center.
According to the report, Land earned more than $600,000 in 1998
representing injured workers before the state workers' compensation
system that he helps oversee.
Other findings:
_ In Oregon, at least 15 state legislators placed spouses on the
public payroll as legislative aides. In 1999, the legislature gave
aides a 60 percent pay raise.
_ In New York, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno played a
large role in the 1997 effort to overturn state rent-control laws.
Besides other investments, he holds a 25 percent stake in a real
estate development firm in Glens Falls, N.Y. At least 36 of 211
lawmakers are real estate executives, brokers or salesmen.
_ In Illinois, Sen. Kirk Dillard registered as a lobbyist for
his law firm. While serving as a legislator, he was a prime sponsor
of tort reform, a measure to limit the amount of money suing
plaintiffs can collect from businesses. Dillard said he only talked
with administration officials and did not advocate.
_ In Delaware, the legislature voted to deregulate electric
utility sales. Eight of the House members who favored the change
held stock in the state's biggest utility company.
On its Web site, www.publicintegrity.org, the center provides a
national overview of its findings, reports on each state, and makes
available copies of each legislator's financial disclosure.
The study was funded, in part, by the Carnegie Corp., the Ford
Foundation and the Open Society Institute.
___
On the Web:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/reports/50states/project.html
_________________________________________________________________
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com