This legislative session, many of the bills to reform ethics were prompted by the Center’s report last year that gave Maine an “F” for anti-corruption measures.
Here’s the Press Herald’s editorial from today on “revolving door” legislation making its way through the statehouse:
Maine should pass tougher ethics laws — Allowing regulators to move from public jobs to jobs in industries they once regulated is dangerous.
Sometimes it’s bad to be too good. After decades of honest government peopled with principled members of both parties, Maine finds itself ranked near the bottom when it comes to tough ethics rules.
States that have a culture of political corruption often have the strongest protections in their laws because they needed them. For instance, many states would have ended pension payments to someone like former Maine Turnpike Authority Director Paul Violette, who was sent to prison for helping himself to public funds, but Maine had so little experience with that kind of crime, it had no law on the books to respond to it.
To read the rest of this editorial, click here.
