Indiana legislature opts out of transparency

Transparency in government is a fundamental element of a healthy democracy.

It is of the utmost importance that democratic citizens hold their government responsible, which requires knowing what their government is up to.

President Barack Obama has taken decisive and encouraging steps toward transparency. He has issued some of the tightest restrictions of any administration on lobbyists, including banning anyone who leaves his administration from lobbying the executive branch for the rest of his presidency. This is a step up from Bush’s yearlong ban.

He instructed federal agencies to err on the side of openness when it comes to releasing records. Moreover, he reversed Bush’s executive order that provided veto power over which executive archives are made public to past presidents, vice
presidents and their heirs.

The Indiana General Assembly has not followed suit. They seem to be avoiding transparency legislation as though it were a subprime mortgage.

State Senator Mike Delph, R-Carmel, told the Indianapolis Star he’s doubtful that several lobbying reform bills will make it out of committee.

The first would reduce the minimum value of gifts that must be reported to $25; currently this limit stands at $100, meaning lobbyists can wine and dine legislators at Ruth’s Chris Steak House every night of the week and never report a thing.

The second bill would oblige lobbyists to file reports on their contact with legislators and staff members on a weekly basis.

Another requires a yearlong ban on lobbying for anyone who has served as a legislator.

The final bill would boldly classify university officials that lobby as – gasp – lobbyists. All of these bills are quite reasonable, and, honestly, it’s rather disappointing that measures such as these are not already in place. $100 is simply too high of a limit, and the other bills provide tools to fight corruption and stop the revolving door between politicians and lobbyists.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on Indiana, though. Even Obama is failing to live up to his own super-high standards of transparency by hiring William Lynn, a former lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, as deputy secretary of defense.

Lynn was a lobbyist until last year.

Still, the lack of transparency in the Indiana General Assembly is extremely disappointing.

It is time for our state to tighten the exceptionally loose oversight on lobbying.