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July 2012
Executive Summary
According to the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), Florida earned a D grade, ranking 26th in the U.S. for legislative financial disclosure in 2009. Louisiana ranked No. 1 on CPI’s disclosure ranking, up from 44th in 2006. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal worked with his state legislature in 2008 to pass new ethics laws that moved their state from the bottom to the top of the list. Louisiana Economic Development, that state’s counterpart to Enterprise Florida and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, touts ethics reform on its website. Gov. Jindal said he set out to “completely transform the ethics laws in (his) state to encourage increased business investment and job creation”. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Louisiana has maintained a lower unemployment rate than Florida every month from January 2008 through June 2012.
The clearest way to see where Florida needs to go to improve its financial disclosure ranking is to compare the 2011 financial disclosures of Gov. Jindal and Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Financial disclosure information required in Louisiana but not in Florida includes:
- More detailed outside employment information
- Nonprofit board memberships
- More detailed financial disclosure information from spouses
- Income from government and gaming interests
- More details about clients from professional or consulting services
- All financial transactions exceeding $1,000
- Government staff campaign contributions to public officials that employ them
According to the Center for Public Integrity, 27 states put financial disclosure filings of state officials online, but Florida does not. Integrity Florida has posted the personal financial disclosure filings from 2011, 2010 and the first term in office for Florida’s legislators and top state officials to www.integrityflorida.org. Integrity Florida also put online disclosures of potential voting conflicts from the 2012 legislative session, disclosures of legislators working for firms with clients before state government, disclosures of gifts received by legislators and top state officials and lists of individuals who have not filed financial disclosures and fines owed to the Ethics Commission.