Big Buck GOP Ripping Off Everyone in Sight!

Legislators: Cash gift rule needs changing

By John Tompkins The Facts

Published December 7, 2006

Cash or check?

Public officials should be forced to report the monetary amount of gifts given to them by donors, even though an advisory opinion from a state commission says they don’t have to, local legislators said.

So far, four bills have been pre-filed for the upcoming 80th Legislature that would require just that, said Tim Sorrells, deputy general counsel for the Texas Ethics Commission.

The bills come behind an advisory opinion issued last week by the ethics commission, which states legislators and public officials do not have to report the amount of a monetary gift from a donor, merely what kind of gift it is, check or cash, Sorrells said.

“There’s nothing in that statute that requires them to report the value of that gift,” he said. “The language is just not there.”

If none of the four bills currently filed changes the reporting law, State Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, said he would write his own bill to force public officials to report gift values.

“Clearly that is unacceptable,” he said. “We might as well throw the statute out.”

The commission did interpret the law correctly and didn’t make its decision based on public outcries, Janek said.

“The ethics commission is in a tight spot,” he said. “I applaud them for staying in the confines of the law.”

An ethics commission advisory opinion is not a creation of law, merely an interpretation of existing law, Sorrells said.

“Everything is allowed that was allowed before,” he said. “It doesn’t change anything in the law.”

The case stems from a June 2005 disclosure filed by Dallas businessman Bill Ceverha, a member of the State Employees Retirement System board, which oversees a nearly $20 billion fund for 250,000 retired state workers.

Ceverha reported a gift, described only as a check, from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, the largest Republican donor in the state. Both men later said the check for $50,000 was supposed to help cover legal fees Ceverha incurred defending himself against a lawsuit related to his role as treasurer of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s Texas fundraising operation.

State law requires public officials to report every political donation and amount made to their campaigns. The ethics commission’s decision addresses personal gifts made to public officials.

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, filed a lawsuit against the ethics commission asking them to ask for more meaningful descriptions of monetary gifts. The ethics commission was wrong in its decision and it gives legislators every reason not to report the monetary value of a gift they receive from a political donor, he said.

“It shows how spineless our reporting laws are,” Burnam said. “They’ve opened up a loophole.”

Reporting the value of a gift should be as regular as reporting campaign donations, said State Sen. Mike Jackson, R-Houston, whose district includes part of Brazoria County.

“There ought to be a little bit more explanation about what it is,” he said. “The concept ought to be open, and people should report that.”

Though he said the law needs to be changed and he supports bills that would require more information on gifts, no legislation is stronger than the public’s demand to know what kind of money their legislators are receiving, Bonnen said.

The fear of the public finding out an official is taking an undisclosed sum of money from a donor is usually fear enough to make the official write down the amount, he said.

“That’s a stronger standard than any legislation,” Bonnen said.