‘Meaningful ethics reform’ eludes Austin

Despite an explicit request by Gov. Greg Abbott to make ethics reform a priority of the 84th legislative session, lawmakers left Austin without making significant progress.

That’s at least in part because two ethics bills designed to increase transparency contained an amendment that would actually weaken it.

House Bill 3736 and House Bill 3511 were designed to increase requirements for personal financial disclosures, reduce conflicts of interest on state government boards and commissions, and improve disclosures of government contract work by state elected officials — all laudable goals, and badly needed in a time of increased bureaucratic opacity in Austin.

But the so-called spousal loophole, tacked onto the bills by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would have allowed married elected officials to hide their personal financial information from the public.

That would have undermined the policies in practice as well as spirit.

Declaring that the legislation failed to accomplish his stated goal of “meaningful ethics reform,” Abbott summarily vetoed the bills and called on the Legislature to tackle the issue next session.

Abbott was right to exercise the veto, just as he was right to make ethics reform a policy goal.

But the governor can’t accomplish his agenda without the Legislature’s help. Lawmakers’ failure to achieve his goal is both disappointing and destructive.

Texans shouldn’t have to wait another two years for Austin to clean up its act.

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 5:53 PM with the headline "‘Meaningful ethics reform’ eludes Austin."