Ethics reform, again
Gov. Wolf’s serious and necessary proposals
Gov. Tom Wolf championed a package of ethics reforms Monday that the Legislature should pass with all due speed but, if history is a guide, likely won’t push to the finish line. Sadly, there was a tilting-at-windmills quality to Mr. Wolf’s demands for a gift ban, campaign finance reform, the curtailment of unvouchered expenses, more extensive financial disclosure and the suspension of state officials’ paychecks when the budget isn’t passed on time.
The Legislature routinely refuses to push through reform even when its own members propose it. Some of Mr. Wolf’s proposals already are bills stranded in committee or waiting for action. For example, Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, last June introduced bills to ban gifts and unvouchered expenses for lawmakers. Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, repeatedly has sponsored bills seeking to limit the outside income of the 203 House members and 50 senators who supposedly work for their constituents full time. He’s made no headway — and many members continue to moonlight as lawyers, funeral home owners, insurance brokers, real estate owners and so on, in some cases sitting on the legislative committees overseeing those same professions.
Republicans quickly dismissed the proposals from Mr. Wolf, a Democrat seeking his second term, as election-year grandstanding. Even if that is the case, the proposals are sound. Mr. Wolf, who implemented a gift ban for executive-branch employees, wants lawmakers to agree to a similar ban and to make the executivebranch version permanent so it remains in place when he leaves office. He did not propose a limit on outside income but called on lawmakers to disclose more information than they do now about the sources of that work and the sums derived from it.
Mr. Wolf also called for campaign finance reform that would limit contributions, among other provisions, and he demanded that the Legislature require members to submit receipts for expenses. Right now, lawmakers receive per diems without having to show they actually spent the money on meals or other legitimate purposes. Noting the state budget has been late in six of the past 10 years, Mr. Wolf wants the Legislature to suspend pay for members, their top staff members, the governor and other officials the next time the deadline is missed. If dawdling or fighting over the budget pushes some school districts and nonprofits to the brink of insolvency, as has happened in recent years, legislators and the governor should feel the pinch, too. Suspending the governor’s salary wouldn’t be an incentive for Mr. Wolf, a wealthy businessman who donates his salary to charity and forgoes a state pension, but it might work with future governors.
While some reform is better than none, Mr. Wolf’s proposals don’t go far enough. Outside income for lawmakers should be limited, and the Legislature should adopt stronger policies guarding against conflicts of interest. Lawmakers also need to open a wider variety of legislative records to public scrutiny, abolish the all-but-unaccountable private security forces serving the House and Senate, and overhaul an openrecords law that has more gaps than a jack-o’-lantern’s smile.
These are responsible measures unlikely to be passed until a major scandal ignites the voters’ wrath. At that point, every legislator will become an ardent reformer.