Luke wrote an opinion editorial that was published this week in the Indianapolis Star. You can read it here and below.

A good start, but we need more ethics reform

I applaud the Indiana General Assembly for ethics reform legislation moving through its chamber. The steps, such as requiring a one-year wait period for moving from a legislator to a lobbyist, are a move in the right direction for our state. These bills, however, ignore an elephant in the room. If Indiana is serious about reform, we should consider three further, common sense proposals:

• Banning legislators from being paid to represent clients before state agencies in policy matters and requiring greater financial disclosure of other business conduct by legislators.

• Banning legislators from being paid fundraisers.

• Closing a loophole that allows some legislators to raise funds during budget sessions.

I offer a unique perspective on this legislation. I served a little less than four years as a state legislator and a little less than three years as a paid lobbyist. Today, I serve in neither of those roles, but I know first-hand the challenges faced by those drafting this legislation.

It is a challenge for legislators to balance their day job with their part-time public service, which requires them to be away for legislative business seven out of every twenty-four months. It is particularly challenging if a legislator must change jobs while serving in the General Assembly. In 2005, I tried to change jobs and continue serving as a state legislator. Frankly, most interested employers posed some sort of potential conflict because they also conducted business before the State. To avoid the conflict, I decided not to seek another term.

Indiana is one of only twenty states that place no restrictions on the types of jobs state legislators can have. For example, at least eighteen states restrict legislators from representing clients before state agencies in policy matters. Indiana should change its laws to join those states. At a minimum, serving in the state legislature should mean you can't be paid by private clients to do policy work before the state.

Our state should also strengthen legislator financial disclosure requirements. Mirroring requirements in twenty-three other states, Indiana should require legislators to disclose the name, nature of representation and compensation for any client or employer paying a legislator more than $2000. Today, in most cases, an Indiana legislator is only required to disclose a client or employer if they pay the legislator “more than 1/3 of their non-legislative income.”

Legislators should be banned from being paid fundraisers. I applaud any legislator who volunteers their time to raise money for candidates, charities or other worthy causes. But, when a legislator gets paid to raise money, there is no way to know whether the contributions are made out of a desire to support the cause or made to gain influence with a state legislator.

Legislators should also close a loophole in the law that allows some of them to get around a ban on fundraising during the state’s multi-billion dollar budget session. Current law bans legislators from fundraising during budget sessions unless they are raising money for another office, like Prosecutor, Judge, Mayor or Congress.

Ironically, last week, the House passed a version of H.B. 1001 that would prohibit the Governor from all types of fundraising during the budget session, while maintaining the loophole for legislators. If it’s wrong for the Governor to fundraise during the budget session, it is wrong for legislators – no exceptions.