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6/20/2009
Ellis: Senate Democrats move to cripple government watchdog
Tucked away in the Senate version the state budget, which was adopted earlier this week, is a provision that seriously undercuts the ability of the Government Accountability Board to conduct independent investigations of possible misconduct by public officials, state Senator Michael Ellis charged today.
That provision placed an annual $31,100 cap on the funding available for ethics investigations by the agency.
“Having an unlimited budget to finance ethics investigations is the key to the independence of this agency,” said Ellis.
Ellis was the original proponent of the Government Accountability Board, which was created by combining the state Ethics Board and Elections Board in the wake of the legislative caucus scandal that led to criminal convictions of legislative leaders in both houses and both parties.
“One of the fundamental flaws that led to the caucus scandal was the fact that our so-called watchdog agencies were actually leashed by legislative leaders. If either agency wanted to conduct an investigation of possible legislative misconduct, they were required to go to the legislature to get the funds necessary to conduct a credible investigation.
“It was a system that was designed to fail,” Ellis said.
“When I originally proposed merging the two agencies into the Government Accountability Board, I insisted that the agency have complete independence from the governor and the legislature – and particularly fiscal independence to conduct investigations,” said Ellis. “Without that, all we had was a combined agency with a new name.
“Fiscal independence gave teeth to this government watchdog. Thanks to the Senate Democrats, we’ve de-fanged the watchdog once again.”
Mike Ellis is a Republican and represents the residents of the 19th Senate District.
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