ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080023
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
THE GENERAL Assembly's off-year ``short session,'' beginning today, may prove something of a sleeper. No grand-scale initiatives are likely to dominate. Welfare, parole and juvenile-justice reforms already have been checked off the legislative agenda.
A relatively quiet session offers a good opportunity for lawmakers to take care of some old but nevertheless important business: tightening the ethics rules under which they operate - rules too loose now to inspire public confidence.
In last Sunday's news story regarding weaknesses in Virginia's disclosure laws, it was reported: ``Many lawmakers see no need for sweeping reform, pointing to the General Assembly's scandal-free history.''
But who's to know when the law is a curtain drawn against exposure of inappropriate special-interest influence in legislators' actions or misuse of public funds and campaign contributions?
Gov. George Allen, in his state-of-the-commonwealth address tonight, will propose several ethics-law changes. Among them: more detailed accounting of lobbyists' spending on entertainment and gifts for lawmakers and executive-branch officials. Currently, lobbyists must report spending for such treats, but they don't have to name those on the receiving end.
As the Sunday story documented, there are numerous other ethical mudholes into which lawmakers could slip. No accounting, for instance, is required for the $9,000 each legislator gets each year as ``reimbursement'' for district-office expenses. We're not accusing anyone of cheating, but a legislator could pocket the money, and no one would be the wiser.
Similarly, money contributed for a legislator's campaign can be used for other purposes, including a legislator's services that are subsidized by state taxpayers. Commingling of campaign and public funds should be outlawed, no matter how much lawmakers squeal that it would require too much bookkeeping and paperwork on their part.
They should also close the gate left open for untraceable campaign cash to be collected and spent on candidates by special-interest committees not now covered by disclosure laws. The public has a right to know which special-interest groups have made investments in lawmakers' elections.
And while it is revisiting campaign finance, the General Assembly should cap the amount that any single contributor can give to a single candidate. Virginia is one of only a few states that has no limit.
With this legislative session serving as a walk-up to the '97 campaigns for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the 100-member House of Delegates, it's a good time to put some restraints on candidates' chase for big-buck donors.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB