{"id":13873,"date":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true\/"},"modified":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","slug":"ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/tl\/articles\/ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Masyadong Mabuting Maging Totoo ang Reporma ni Ralston"},"template":"","class_list":["post-13873","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"How wonderful it would be for Georgia';s ethics commission to be able to write rules again. It would be a marvelous thing for lobbyists to lose their ability to give unlimited gifts to government officials in this state. The two … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>","featured_image":null,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":13682}"],"related_issues":false,"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"
\"\"<\/a>

Nagsalita si House Speaker David Ralston sa mga miyembro ng media noong Martes, Enero 29, habang inilalahad niya ang kanyang pinakahihintay na plano para sa reporma sa etika.<\/p><\/div>Larawan ni: Jason Getz ng AJC jgetz@ajc.com

How wonderful it would be for Georgia's ethics commission to be able to write rules again. It would be a marvelous thing for lobbyists to lose their ability to give unlimited gifts to government officials in this state. The two bills presented by Georgia's House Speaker, David Ralston<\/a>, naglalaman ng maraming lehitimo at kapuri-puri na mga ideya.<\/p>

We're pleased to see an actual debate about ethics reform emerge at the start of this session. After the last two years of claims that the status quo should be acceptable, we want to encourage honest conversation about transparency and influence to continue.<\/p>

<\/span>But it's a predictable shame that the ethics bills at hand start a conversation covered in political poison.<\/p>

Common Cause Georgia will be working over the next few days to rescue otherwise-fine legislation from additional provisions that appear designed to damage transparency and access to government for the common citizen -- provisions that make these proposals impossible to support overall for people committed to real reform.<\/p>

For example, currently out-of-state corporate and political lobbyists have the ability to easily move among legislators without monitoring. In an \"attempt\" to contain this, Ralston's proposal would define lobbyists broadly. On its face, this seems like an appropriate posture to take. But the language is so broad that kahit sino <\/em>nagtataguyod para sa kahit ano <\/em>sa harap ng anuman <\/em>pampublikong opisyal maliban sa isa sa kanilang sariling mga inihalal na opisyal ay kailangang magbayad ng $320 upang magparehistro bilang isang tagalobi. Walang ginawang pagkakaiba sa pagitan ng $500-isang-oras na corporate lobbyist at mga boluntaryong grupo. Magsalita ka, magbayad ka. Mga grupo ng simbahan, mga aktibistang pampulitika, mga nonprofit na organisasyon, mga pinuno ng negosyo, mga social club, mga asosasyon ng magulang-guro: nagsasalita ka, nagbabayad ka.<\/p>

Kahit na ang pagpapadala ng email o mga kahilingan sa Facebook na humihikayat sa mga kaibigan na makipag-ugnayan sa kanilang mga kinatawan, sa pamamagitan ng liham ng batas, ay mangangailangan sa nagpadala na magparehistro at mag-isyu ng mga ulat sa pagsisiwalat sa komisyon sa etika ng estado bawat dalawang linggo. Bilang isang praktikal na bagay, isusulat lang ng lobbyist na may mataas na bayad ang tseke, habang ang karaniwang mamamayan ay hindi na makakausap.<\/p>

In another example, the proposal calls for a complete ban on lobbyist gifts, which would be a tremendous achievement from an ethics standpoint. But the ban doesn't apply if gifts are offered to entire subcommittee \"_ and some subcommittees have a membership of exactly one legislator. The ban also doesn't apply to trips for public officers on \"official duties,\" which are undefined, and \"public officers\" are just about anyone elected to a position in state or local government, and even some political appointees.<\/p>

The proposal would reduce the workload of the ethics commission by allowing county and municipal candidates to file their ethics reports to their county government and not the state level. Common Cause Georgia supports this, but only as long as those reports are required to be available online. Ralston's bill makes no such requirement. As a practical matter, then, county commissioners could file paper documents about how they had raised and spent money on their campaigns -- documents which may never be digitized and would be even more difficult to examine than they are today. It would effectively make things less transparent than they are now.<\/p>

There's much to praise in the legislation. The bills would restore rule-making authority to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission — formerly (and rightfully) called the state ethics commission. The bill would also impose limits on reimbursement for travel expenses during official business.<\/p>

The problem isn't with the good, but the bad. The \"poison pill\" provisions are classic wrecking maneuvers. Lay out good law, with things that everyone wants, but tie it to something that would have to be opposed by anyone with sense. Then it's easy to claim that the will for reform isn't there when it fails.<\/p>

Ang publiko ay iiral. Ang Common Cause Georgia ay magsisikap na alisin ang mga elemento ng poison pill mula sa mga panukalang ito at mag-alok ng mga partikular na pagbabago sa wikang pambatasan na magpapagana sa mga batas na ito. Mag-sign on<\/a> kung gusto mo kaming tulungan.<\/p>"}}]},"yoast_head":"\nRalston’s Reform Too Good to Be True - Common Cause<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/tl\/mga-artikulo-2\/ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ralston’s Reform Too Good to Be True\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/tl\/mga-artikulo-2\/ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CommonCause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CC-Share-Graphic-Main9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CommonCause\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/ralstons-reform-too-good-to-be-true\/\",\"name\":\"Ralston’s Reform Too Good to Be True - 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