Alabama: New Sunshine Legislation Pre-filed
December 18th, 2007 by Steve
During the 2007 session of the legislature, I introduced HB510, which required state elected officials to report details of any state contracts and employment to the Secretary of State, who would then post the information online. I was motivated to propose this legislation after learning of some of the questionable employment practices and contracts within the 2-year college system. My intention was not political one-upsmanship or to pour salt in the wounds of those who have received negative publicity. I proposed this legislation in the spirit of Justice Louis Brandeis’ comment, “Sunshine is the best antiseptic”. Political one-upsmanship creates wounds, but an antiseptic enables healing.
With that thought in mind, I have pre-filed the new and improved version for 2008, HB20. This bill requires all state, county, and municipal elected officials, candidates and their spouses to report all state, county, and municipal employment and contracts to the Ethics Commission.
I’ll have to read the text of the legislation, but this sounds like a really good bill. If it reads as good as it sounds, I’ll try to get several state organizations (such as Independent Alabama and the Libertarian Party) with which I’m involved to support it.
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GordonUnleashed » Blog Archive » More Sunshine in Alabama wrote on 12/18/07 at 11:27 am :
[…] Speaking of sunshine, Alabamians may be getting some sunshine from DC. From Left in Alabama: Light shining on the White House visitor logs, that is. Especially regarding the visits of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff: He was a benefactor of the 1990s Republican effort to paint Washington lobbyists in Red State red. He dabbled in Alabama politics, helping a Mississippi Indian casino secretly fund anti-lottery forces. He was a big-time friend of the Bush administration, making hundreds of contacts in one 10-month period of 2001. The mind reels imagining the volume of contacts and White House visits between then and early 2006, when Abramoff was convicted on fraud charges. […]