"To all you ne'er do wells predisposed to bribe public officials, the Ethics Commission just made your job easier."
Campaign 'gifts' just got easier
3/27/2006
By: Harvey Kronberg
News 8 Austin
Copyright 2006
Every now and then, a development over at the Capitol is so bizarre, so detached from reality, it takes the breath away of even jaded long time political watchers like myself.
Consider last week's ruling by the Texas Ethics Commission.
A 35-year-old law requires public officials describe any gifts they might receive on their financial statements submitted to the state. You might be forgiven for thinking a description in a financial statement would include a dollar value. While you would be in sync with three decades of precedent and well-documented legislative intent, you would be wrong.
Here are the facts. A former House member named Bill Ceverha was the treasurer for Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority. When defeated Democratic candidates successfully sued over TRMPAC's misuse of corporate dollars, treasurer Ceverha was the only principal not under criminal indictment, so he ended up being named in the suit.
Now I think that Ceverha was little more than a figurehead with little operational input into the TRMPAC schemes. Nevertheless, his name on the forms made him legally liable.
'Gifts' of donation
A recent Texas Ethics Commission ruling makes hiding improper gifts to public officials much easier.
The legal fees and judgments bankrupted the elderly Ceverha. Houston homebuilder and mega-GOP contributor Bob Perry, pitched in to help him recover financially. Truth is, I'm sympathetic.
The problem is that Ceverha sits on the board of the Texas Employee Retirement System so he had to publicly disclose he received the gift. But in reporting the exchange, Ceverha chose to simply report he had received a check, refusing to indicate how much it was for.
A complaint was filed that the word "check" was not a financial description. In agreement, one member of the Ethics Commission said the check was simply the conveyance and that the gift was the dollars the check represented. His colleagues disagreed. The commission charged with overseeing financial disclosure rejected requiring financial disclosure.
So, to all you ne'er do wells predisposed to bribe public officials, the Ethics Commission just made your job easier. Feel free to give a gift of a half million dollars to some board or commission member before a key vote fully confident that the only thing to show up on their financial disclosures will be the word "check."
Political commentator Harvey Kronberg shares his thoughts on politics in Texas each Monday during On the Agenda. Kronberg is the writer, editor, publisher of the Quorum Report, Texas' oldest political newsletter.
Copyright ©2006TWEAN News Channel of Austin, News 8 Austin www.news8austin.com
3/27/2006
By: Harvey Kronberg
News 8 Austin
Copyright 2006
Every now and then, a development over at the Capitol is so bizarre, so detached from reality, it takes the breath away of even jaded long time political watchers like myself.
Consider last week's ruling by the Texas Ethics Commission.
A 35-year-old law requires public officials describe any gifts they might receive on their financial statements submitted to the state. You might be forgiven for thinking a description in a financial statement would include a dollar value. While you would be in sync with three decades of precedent and well-documented legislative intent, you would be wrong.
Here are the facts. A former House member named Bill Ceverha was the treasurer for Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority. When defeated Democratic candidates successfully sued over TRMPAC's misuse of corporate dollars, treasurer Ceverha was the only principal not under criminal indictment, so he ended up being named in the suit.
Now I think that Ceverha was little more than a figurehead with little operational input into the TRMPAC schemes. Nevertheless, his name on the forms made him legally liable.
'Gifts' of donation
A recent Texas Ethics Commission ruling makes hiding improper gifts to public officials much easier.
The legal fees and judgments bankrupted the elderly Ceverha. Houston homebuilder and mega-GOP contributor Bob Perry, pitched in to help him recover financially. Truth is, I'm sympathetic.
The problem is that Ceverha sits on the board of the Texas Employee Retirement System so he had to publicly disclose he received the gift. But in reporting the exchange, Ceverha chose to simply report he had received a check, refusing to indicate how much it was for.
A complaint was filed that the word "check" was not a financial description. In agreement, one member of the Ethics Commission said the check was simply the conveyance and that the gift was the dollars the check represented. His colleagues disagreed. The commission charged with overseeing financial disclosure rejected requiring financial disclosure.
So, to all you ne'er do wells predisposed to bribe public officials, the Ethics Commission just made your job easier. Feel free to give a gift of a half million dollars to some board or commission member before a key vote fully confident that the only thing to show up on their financial disclosures will be the word "check."
Political commentator Harvey Kronberg shares his thoughts on politics in Texas each Monday during On the Agenda. Kronberg is the writer, editor, publisher of the Quorum Report, Texas' oldest political newsletter.
Copyright ©2006TWEAN News Channel of Austin, News 8 Austin
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Monday, March 27, 2006
<< Home