Texas Gets a D+ in Public Integrity Study

[sonias]

Texas Tribune 3/19/12

Texas Gets a D+ in Public Integrity Study

Texas earned a D+ for state integrity, tying with six other states for 27th place, according to a study released Monday by a group of public watchdog agencies.

Texas scored 68 percent, along with Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Montana and West Virginia.

“This study shows it’s time to unshackle Texas’ ethics watchdog and give it some teeth,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen Texas, a watchdog group.

The national report, compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity, used local reporters in all 50 states to review the laws and practices related to transparency, accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms.

The report compared laws and practices in individual states against 330 “corruption risk indicators” and applied them to 14 categories of state government that were each graded on a 0-100 scale.

I'm shocked! Really expected more of an F, frankly.

[sonias]

1. Report: Texas scores low in ethics accountability

Postcards from the Lege blog AAS 3/19/12
Report: Texas scores low in ethics accountability
(snip)

Texas scored 68 percent, along with Arkansas, Arizona, West Virginia, Montana and Alaska in the study that reviewed the laws and practices related to transparency, accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms in all 50 states.

The study was conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity, and used local reporters compare laws and practices in individual states against 330 “corruption risk indicators.”
New Jersey scored the highest with 87 — a B-plus.

“This study shows it’s time to unshackle Texas’ ethics watchdog and give it some teeth,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen Texas, a watchdog group. “It shows there’s a big problem.”

No immediate response from officials at the Texas Ethics Commission, which oversees enforcement of the state’s ethics laws governing public officials.

In a statement, the groups responsible for the study said that states where corruption has been a problem tend to pass more robust accountability laws. But Smith said that over time, “the reforms that come from corruption get tend to get watered down.”

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. Any link to the study? Because I just heard ...

on a NPR local news report that Arizona ... the Land of Governor "Pause", Nutty Legislators and an even Nuttier Sheriff ... scored one of the few "A"s issued.

I was wondering how'd that happen?

[sonias]

4. Website URL

http://www.stateintegrity.org/

I just took a look at Arizona. They got a "A" on the redistricting issue. Overall, like Texas they suck at a D+

http://www.stateintegrity.org/arizona

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. Okay ...

That's funny ... The news report trumpeted the "A" rating, but neglected to mention the over-all rating. Go figure.

[mbperrin]

3. I'm shocked too, that we scored more than

20.

[sonias]

6. We got a few Fs - quite a few

http://www.stateintegrity.org/texas



Texas is a failure on open transparent and ethical government. It's never been more clear!