With ‘friend’ like Cagle, ethics bill needs no enemies
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle claims to support ethics-reform legislation. And maybe he does. As spokesman Ben Fry noted last week, when Cagle served as a state senator he voted in favor of legislation that would have set a limit of $50 on gifts from lobbyists. Unfortunately, the bill failed.
Now, as lieutenant governor, Cagle is in position to really make a difference on the issue. Yet rather than champion reform, Cagle last week struck what will probably be a fatal blow to a Senate ethics-reform package, including a provision that would put a $100 limit on the value of gifts that lobbyists may shower on legislators.
The bill in question, sponsored by state Sen. Josh McKoon and several other Republican senators, ordinarily would have been referred to the Senate Ethics Committee for hearings, amendments and votes. The Ethics Committee exists in part to perform that very function.
Instead, however, Cagle assigned the bill to the Senate Rules Committee. According to Fry, Cagle sent the bill to Rules because that committee has “seasoned, veteran members” who would know how to handle such legislation.
Maybe, but I doubt it.
Ordinarily, the next step in the legislative process would be to hold a public hearing so the bill’s merits and demerits can be discussed. But the Rules Committee almost never holds hearings on bills, and in fact almost never works on actual legislation. Its sole role is to decide which bills prepared by other committees will be sent to the Senate floor for a final vote.
The truth is, when bills are sent directly to the Rules Committee, they are usually sent there to die quietly, with not so much as a whimper.
In the House, for example, Speaker David Ralston has made no secret of his opposition to a gift limit. (Georgia is one of only three states in the country without a gift ban or even limit). And where did Ralston send the House version of the ethics-reform bill to ensure that it never saw the light of day again? To the House Rules Committee.
In an interview Tuesday, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Don Balfour, R-Gwinnett, disagreed that the ethics bill had been put into his committee to die. However, he acknowledged that even though the bill had been referred to his committee almost a week ago, he has yet to read it and hasn’t decided what, if anything, will be done with it.
“We will hand it out this week to committee members to let them look at it if they want to,” Balfour said. “Then we’ll wait to get their feedback and see what they want to do about it, whether they want to hold a hearing later.” In other words, with the 2012 legislative session already half over, it’s safe to assume they won’t be rushing this through.
Balfour did defend the decision to assign the bill to Rules, noting that his committee occasionally conducts public hearings into legislation. As the sole example, he cited a proposed constitutional amendment barring gay marriage from “a few years ago.”
More precisely, that example occurred in 2004, eight years ago.
Given the topic, it’s relevant to note that last year, Balfour accepted more than $13,000 in gifts from lobbyists. That includes Braves tickets, Georgia Bulldog tickets, Falcons playoff tickets, hockey tickets, WWE wrestling tickets and concert tickets, as well as expensive meals and trips to three conferences at vacation resorts.
That largess shouldn’t be surprising, given Balfour’s role as Rules chairman. To a large degree, he controls which bills live, and which die, so people who need things done want to be nice to him.
It’s certainly possible, of course, that my cynicism is misplaced. It’s possible that Cagle wasn’t trying to kill the bill when he made the odd decision to refer it to Rules. It’s equally possible that once he gets around to reading the bill, Balfour will recognize its virtue and give it a fair hearing, even though it threatens to make his own life a little less glamorous.
These things are possible, but not likely.
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© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
235 comments Add your comment
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2012
7:52 am
This is the type of “leadership” that Georgia’s majority of voters want and so they got it. I think they like being screwed.
Jerome Horwitz
February 15th, 2012
7:53 am
The best government money can buy. Unfortunately, it’s not their salaries, but, whatever they can squeeze from their true constituents – special interests.
Paul
February 15th, 2012
7:59 am
So, who got to Cagle? Sponsoring the legislation didn’t cost him a win as Lt Gov. Maybe the power brokers overlooked his one bout of ethics? So now he’s Lt Gov, is it possible by championing this legislation he would alienate those whose support he’d need for higher office?
Joe The Plumber Too
February 15th, 2012
8:03 am
Wow! Jay starts the day off with an anti-Republican blog. Will wonders never cease? Jay, got anything on the unethical adminstration in the White House? Just wondering.
barking frog
February 15th, 2012
8:03 am
What’s the harm? A little graft here and there…the things
legislators are gifted for probably need doing anyway and
it supplements their part time pay.
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:03 am
governing is a’spensive …
Normal
February 15th, 2012
8:05 am
Is the Georgia Congress playing another version of “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg”?
Seem that they don’t want to kill it. Maybe they’re afraid of PETA?
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2012
8:08 am
At least Cagle isn’t a director at GB&T any longer, is he? You know the place. The bank that loaned money for that Wilder Outdoors place (what a Real Deal that turned out to be) that is now owned by some guy that says he has no interest in opening up yet another porn shop.
Jay
February 15th, 2012
8:11 am
Paul, I think a couple things:
1.) As lieutenant governor, you’re treated to a higher level of gift that as a lowly senator; see: his acceptance of the $5000 round of golf last year.
2.) His vote as a senator on a bill going nowhere was “easy virtue,” so to speak. And he probably didn’t think he’d get called out on the basis of which committee he assigned this bill to. That kind of “inside baseball” is usually overlooked.
Peadawg
February 15th, 2012
8:11 am
So you write a long article with a whole bunch of “ifs”, then write this:
“It’s certainly possible, of course, that my cynicism is misplaced. It’s possible that Cagle wasn’t trying to kill the bill when he made the odd decision to refer it to Rules. It’s equally possible that once he gets around to reading the bill, Balfour will recognize its virtue and give it a fair hearing, even though it threatens to make his own life a little less glamorous.”
I’ll wait until the next blog comes up. Maybe that will have some concrete facts/topics to discuss instead of a bunch of “ifs”.
Jay
February 15th, 2012
8:13 am
But you know, as long as people dismiss stuff like this as “Republican-bashing,” rather than deal with the reality of it, they’re all going to get away with it and they know it.
barking frog
February 15th, 2012
8:14 am
Jay, 8:13, in the words of the Hank Williams Jr. song
“It’s a family tradition”.
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2012
8:15 am
Republicans do not seem to be able to take the news regarding their poor choices for public offices very well.
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:15 am
Rules … where good bills go to die …
AmVet - You cons have got to ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punks?
February 15th, 2012
8:15 am
Wow! Jay starts the day off with an anti-Republican blog.
Wow! Jay starts the day off with an anti-corruption blog.
The plumber loves his thieving neo-con dirt bags, doesn’t he? He is the perfect Republican.
Programmed by the con media to believe that no matter that he is being lied to, sold out and ripped off endlessly and needlessly by his own beloved party, it is all part of the holy mission to stop Marxism in it’s tracks.
I am convinced that there is simply no sin or crime egregious enough for these sycophants to disregard or overlook. To them, as long as the graft is by Republicans, it’s of no consequence.
Even when their families are the ones getting royally shafted.
Inexplicable…
Georgia on our minds
February 15th, 2012
8:16 am
…and the Republicans try to blame Georgia’s woes on President Obama. They do not want to take away the chance to receive all of the goodies and their upscale free bribes! This state has been under Republican rule for at least 10 years and economically we are still far behind other states. Maybe the legislators should take the extra perks that they are receiving and auction them off and donate the proceeds to the homeless!!
barking frog
February 15th, 2012
8:17 am
Politics has never been electing an honest guy, it’s
about electing ‘my guy’ so I can get the benefits.
Dishonest voters elect Dishonest Politicians.
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:18 am
TaxPayer – “Republicans do not seem to be able to take the news regarding their poor choices for public offices very well.”
I believe the word you’re looking for is … deflection …
Keep Up the Good Fight!
February 15th, 2012
8:18 am
Jay, absolutely right. Proposing the bill is merely one of many steps to get the bill to a vote and this looks like it has been sidetracked on a dead end. It is still amazing to me the arrogance of legislators who claim to need no gift limits and yet they have imposed gift limits and restrictions on state employees and others. Somehow they think they rise above the frothy mix.
Normal
February 15th, 2012
8:19 am
Republican defence…”Raise shields, fire fool-ton torpedos…”
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2012
8:20 am
Wow! Jay starts the day off with an anti-Republican blog. Will wonders never cease? Jay, got anything on the unethical adminstration in the White House? Just wondering.
Kyle operates the “anti-Democrat” blog, Joe. Why don’t you share your knowledge of the current White House administration with us. And please, something other than Geithner’s multi-thousand dollar tax errors that he did not hide or evade. That wouldn’t even cover the cost of round trip tickets to Europe.
barking frog
February 15th, 2012
8:20 am
The same people who ran the state as Democrats are
now running it as Republicans. Why would it be different?
Adam
February 15th, 2012
8:21 am
Off topic, but did anyone happen to see the Republican reasoning for extending the payroll tax cut without paying for it?
The reasoning is this: They now believe that this is an issue that they happen to agree with the President and the Democrats on, therefore they agreed to pass it in a bipartisan way, so they could move on to other issues where there is legitimate disagreement.
This is a very reasonable position, and I applaud the Republicans for their ability to agree and compromise on something. I hope they carry it to other reasonable measures.
But I also want to make one other thing clear – to all you folks out there who think that the President has not shown leadership, and that is why the Republicans were trying to block him, I would like to point to this compromise and their reasoning, showing you that they agreed, not begrudgingly, to advance the President’s position. The President made his case over and over again and the Republicans said “Yes, we agree, happily.”
Guess what that is? LEADERSHIP!
Normal
February 15th, 2012
8:22 am
But what really gets to me is how they can look at us with a straight face and basically say…”Ethics don’t matter”.
barking frog
February 15th, 2012
8:22 am
Keep, 8:18, you said ‘frothy mix’. teehee..
Joseph
February 15th, 2012
8:23 am
Average price of gas $3.51 a gallon…. Obama has amased the highest per average price for a gallon of gas of any US President in history but we are worried that someone might get a free round of golf…. LOL… Libbys love to side step issues…
TaxPayer
February 15th, 2012
8:23 am
UsinUK,
Normal beat me to it — they raised shields. I didn’t think about them also firing fool-ton torpedos though. That was a clever maneuver. Did you know they can fire those things both forward and aft simultaneously.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
February 15th, 2012
8:24 am
Normal, not to be picky but its “Ethics don’t matter for our guys, but…but….look at Obama and Pelosi, now….now….now…that matters!”
Adam
February 15th, 2012
8:25 am
But you know, as long as people dismiss stuff like this as “Republican-bashing,” rather than deal with the reality of it, they’re all going to get away with it and they know it.
Kind of like how any time any organization attacks Fox News, all the Fox shows play victim and pretend (over and over) that every other media outlet is liberal and that they’re all out to get them, and this somehow makes they’re
agendaarguments true and virtuous?Adam
February 15th, 2012
8:25 am
Oh good grief, I screwed up a “their.” Sunnuvab*tch….
Adam
February 15th, 2012
8:26 am
Joseph: Obama has amased the highest per average price for a gallon of gas of any US President in history
Maybe you better tell him to stop moving the gas price lever in the White House then.
willie lynch
February 15th, 2012
8:27 am
Joseph
February 15th, 2012
8:23 am
Please explain how the POTUS has an effect on gas prices.
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:28 am
“Maybe you better tell him to stop moving the gas price lever in the White House then.”
is it like the “easy button” ???
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:30 am
I used to go to school with a girl named Libby … while she liked a good square dance, I don’t remember her side-stepping much …
Granny Godzilla
February 15th, 2012
8:30 am
Joseph
“Average price of gas $3.51 a gallon…. Obama has amased the highest per average price for a gallon of gas of any US President in history but we are worried that someone might get a free round of golf”
Pardon me?
highest record gasoline prices of $4.11 per gallon in July 2008
Adam
February 15th, 2012
8:30 am
willie lynch: Well, you see, it’s a magic gas price lever that Bush managed to find in his first term, but no other President before him was aware of it. After he found it, he messed with it to give his crony buddies money. Then when he left office, he had moved the lever back down, knowing full well that the cat was out of the bag and the next President would surely find the lever, so he wanted to make sure whenever it was touched it would lead to ever increasing gas prices so that his conservative buddies could get revenge on liberals for complaining about when Bush had control of the lever by constantly complaining about gas prices when Obama had control.
The End.
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:30 am
(meanwhile, poor Joseph seems to have slept through the unrest in Libya … )
ragnar danneskjold
February 15th, 2012
8:32 am
I do not care about “politician ethics,” which is an oxymoron at any level. I care about wasteful spending.
Granny Godzilla
February 15th, 2012
8:32 am
when it says libby libby libby
on the label label label
you will like it like it like it
on your table table table…..
Or in the White House…..
Brosephus™ "Browning America since 1973"
February 15th, 2012
8:33 am
You get the jackassery that you vote for. I’m not surprised that I still have yet to receive a single response from the emails that I’ve sent to GA officials on ethics. That will come into play when it’s time to cast my votes. I may forgive, but I never forget.
jm
February 15th, 2012
8:33 am
“That includes Braves tickets, Georgia Bulldog tickets, Falcons playoff tickets, hockey tickets, WWE wrestling tickets and concert tickets, as well as expensive meals and trips to three conferences at vacation resorts.”
When do they have time to work? Oh the burdens of being a state legislator…
willie lynch
February 15th, 2012
8:34 am
Well it seems I wasn’t the only one completely dazzled by Joseph’s line of reasoning or lack thereof.
Joe The Plumber Too
February 15th, 2012
8:34 am
wow, amwet didn’t get his meds this morning. Have a coke and a smile buddy.
Georgia on our minds
February 15th, 2012
8:34 am
Last week the telephone numbers were posted for Lt. Governor Cagle’s office. I telephoned them to ask if they were going to created new ethics laws. They told me that they were in the process and gave the House Bill number. I did not have time to look up that particular bill at that time. I went to the website later and realized that it was some bogus bill concerning the city of Macon. They know how to sidetrack you when you call them. What are they afraid of?
Brosephus™ "Browning America since 1973"
February 15th, 2012
8:35 am
Jay starts the day off with an anti-Republican blog. Will wonders never cease?
Well, considering the fact that anything against Georgia elected officials could be whined about as being anti-Republican, you would think they would govern themselves as the ethical Christians they portray on the campaign trail, wouldn’t you?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
February 15th, 2012
8:35 am
I do not care about “politician ethics,”……….I care about wasteful spending
because of course gifts by lobbyists never ever ever lead to wasteful spending, right?
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:36 am
“I do not care about “politician ethics,” which is an oxymoron at any level. I care about wasteful spending.”
um. dearest. do you not think that maybe … juuuuuuuuuuuust maybe … they could be inextricably linked???
naaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Brosephus™ "Browning America since 1973"
February 15th, 2012
8:36 am
Politics has never been electing an honest guy, it’s
about electing ‘my guy’ so I can get the benefits.
Dishonest voters elect Dishonest Politicians.
^^^^^This^^^^^
USinUK
February 15th, 2012
8:36 am
dammit keep!!!
I owe you a coke.
jm
February 15th, 2012
8:37 am
Bro, I believe you brought this up the other day….. (the missing English lady)
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/fulton-me-hypothermia-likely-1349194.html