2010 Special Session Is Over

As you know, a special session of the Legislature is limited in time and scope. This special session ended early yesterday when the Legislature passed the last of a series of bills and sent them to Governor Riley for his signature. According to a press release from the Alabama GOP, the ethics reforms passed include:

• an end to unlimited gift-giving by lobbyists and others to public officials and public employees;

• a ban on pass-through pork spending;

• subpoena power for the Alabama Ethics Commission;

• the outlawing of transfers between political action committees;

• the end of “double dipping” by legislators;

• mandatory ethics training for elected officials and public employees at all levels of government and requiring those who lobby the Executive Branch to register as lobbyists with the Ethics Commission; and

• ensuring that public, taxpayer-funded resources aren’t used to subsidize partisan political groups

The bills go to Riley for his signature, and, since the Legislature is already adjourned, he cannot issue any executive amendments. So he has to sign or veto. He'll sign, of course.


What remains to be seen is whether these "reforms" are substantive or not. Remember, the goal isn't to pass legislation that you can brag about, the goal is to stop or reduce corruption in public officials.

And unless I missed the bill increasing the PUNISHMENTS for violating the ethics law and making them actually serve jail time or pay hefty fines, I'm not certain these bills will accomplish that goal.