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Alabama NewsAlabama Politics
New Jersey and Louisiana Are More Concerned about Public Trust than Alabama
By Gary
Posted on: August 24, 2007
A legislature recently passed a bill that bans the practice of dual office holding and stops double-dipping by legislators. Unfortunately for Alabama taxpayers, it was the New Jersey legislature.
It’s hard to imagine that New Jersey, the state associated with Tony Soprano and organized crime, has a legislature that is taking steps to try to restore its credibility and its public image. The taxpayers of Alabama can only wish that a majority of the members of the Alabama Legislature were so concerned.
A recent report published by the New Jersey Policy Perspective, a Trenton-based public policy organization, found that over 700 state and local elected officials held government jobs. The report emphasized how New Jersey’s practice of allowing dual office holding undermines government accountability and is a serious breach of the public trust.
According to the report, 12 members of the 40-member New Jersey Senate and 26 members of the 80-member New Jersey State Assembly (House) receive at least part of their income from government jobs. One New Jersey state senator, Nicholas Sacco, received compensation for being a senator and an assistant school superintendent in North Bergen where he is also the mayor. This guy makes most of Alabama’s double-dipping legislators look like underachievers.
Another New Jersey state senator, Wayne Bryant, was charged with steering millions of state dollars to the University of Dentistry and Medicine of New Jersey in exchange for a $40,000 a year no-show job at the University. Sen. Bryant also has a part-time teaching job at Rutgers-Camden Law School and was a paid counsel to the Glouscester County Board of Social Services. He allegedly used his influence in the New Jersey Senate to benefit each of these entities.
The interesting thing is that Bryant is now under indictment in New Jersey for basically doing what appears some Alabama legislators have been doing for years … using elected offices to benefit their government employers. Moreover, Bryant’s indictment highlights the problem with allowing state legislators to also hold government jobs. That is, there is an almost irresistible built-in incentive for legislators to vote for their own self-interests or the interests of their employer. Unfortunately, the opportunity to benefit personally is too often the motivation for some people running for office.
The report from the New Jersey Policy Perspective makes an important point about many New Jersey legislators that could easily be applied in Alabama. The report said that in the New Jersey Legislature, “… the proportion of elected officials in public employment is far higher than the state average—to the point where it seems reasonable to wonder whether employment in the public sector facilitates running for office because it may be easier to win permission to take time off to campaign and serve. Or, conversely, whether holding elected office, in fact, leads to non-elected positions that might not otherwise be available. Would Senators Bennett or Bryant, for example, have been offered their teaching posts and law firm business if they lacked the power and influence that comes with being a leader in the Senate?”
What should be more embarrassing to Alabamians than the fact that New Jersey thinks allowing state legislators to hold government jobs is a conflict-of-interest is the fact that even ethics-challenged Louisiana prohibits dual office holding and double-dipping. In Louisiana, a member of the state Legislature cannot hold another position, even part time, in local government, including a job as a teacher.
Bradley Byrne, the chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system, is making an effort to restore accountability to the employment practices of Alabama’s two-year colleges. Byrne has set forth restrictions that would limit unpaid leave to no more than 10 days per year and declared that after 2010 no more two-year colleges will be allowed to hire state legislators.
Not surprisingly, here in Alabama, education union bosses Paul Hubbert and Joe Reed have been disingenuous and extreme in their opposition to Byrne’s proposals. We can only imagine what they will say if Gov. Riley is successful in getting his ban on dual office holding and double-dipping introduced in the next legislative session.
If Alabama wants to gain a measure of public trust in the state Legislature, we need to follow the lead of Louisiana and New Jersey by passing a ban on dual office holding and double-dipping. As the last sentence in the New Jersey Policy Perspective report said, “New Jersey needs higher standards of conduct that would fulfill high public expectations for public officials in both elected and non-elected positions.”
The Alabama State Legislature could use a strong dose of higher standards as well.
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