Louisiana Embraces Reform - At Least at the State Level

Ethics problems in Louisiana have shown up in this blog several times, so it’s heartening to be able to report that Louisiana is now putting into law a series of ethics improvements, some of which apply to local governments. For example, this week Gov. Jindal signed bills allowing local ethics entities to issue subpoenas and eliminated a hoophole, I mean loophole, allowing people to give officials free sports tickets (clearly, a mere oversight).

Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.

Other bills that have recently been signed or are about to be signed into law by the new 36-year-old Governor include financial disclosure requirements, mandatory ethics training, limits on lobbyists’ gift giving (but only to $50 a meal, which will kill the champagne market in Baton Rouge), lobbyist disclosure, whistleblower protection, and anti-nepotism rules.

According to the Economist, Louisiana's most infamous governor, Huey Long, once said, "Someday Louisiana is gonna get good government. And they ain't gonna like it." Well, finally we'll see if he was right.

The big question is, will this reform be reflected at the local level? How many Jindals are there in local government. Click here to read about the failure of minor reforms in St. Charles Parish in New Orleans just as Gov. Jindal was signing the state reforms.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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