SENATOR SMITH PRAISES WORK OF SPECIAL SESSION ON ETHICS REFORM

  District 30 State  (D-Leesville) is pleased with the results of the recently completed special legislative session, a session that brought groundbreaking ethics reforms in the areas of financial disclosure, transparency, conflicts of interests and ethics enforcement. He is not alone. Just a few days after the completion of the session, the Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes transparency and accountability in government, praised Louisiana's new financial disclosure laws as "on par with the nation's best financial disclosure laws."

  "It is important that the nation is already taking note of the substantial progress we made in the area of ethics reform, giving our citizens free and open access to information about their government and the conduct of their public servants and candidates for office," Sen. Smith said. "The reforms provide us with the foundation needed to address other issues of importance to our citizens - economic development, education, workforce training and health care reforms."

  Beyond the news laws requiring state, parish and local elected officials as well as key appointed state officials and members of influential state boards and commissions to publicly disclose personal financial information, lawmakers also approved changes in state law relating to the relationship between public servants and lobbyists and prohibitions on elected and appointed officials from doing business with state government.

  The key ethics reform measures approved at the session include:

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