Last week, the Virginia House of Delegates passed an ethics reform bill that sets a $100 cap on gifts for political campaigns and improves the independent advisory panel created in a 2014 ethics bill. The House and State Senate are now working on a compromise bill, which may have fewer changes than the House bill did. The Senate should not lessen the House’s changes but should strengthen them, since these changes are a small step in the right direction toward making Virginia politics more ethical.
Last year’s ethics bill capped gifts at $250 and required legislators to report financial disclosures twice a year, as well as mandating ethics training. But the ongoing national attention on former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s conviction for corruption prompted the General Assembly to further enhance its ethics laws. While this bill is laudable, it should not be the only step the General Assembly takes to lower risk of corruption in the state.
Currently, the State Integrity Investigation ranks Virginia 47th among 50 states in its “Corruption Risk Report Card,” with an overall grade of “F.” Last year’s ethics reforms were largely unimpressive, seemingly little more than a gesture. This is because the then-$250 cap on gifts did not include travel, meals, entertainment or other events — essentially the majority of the gifts lobbyists give. This has not changed with this year’s ethics bill.
Also troubling is Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s refusal to prohibit the governor from accepting campaign contributions from companies seeking grants from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, which gives taxpayers grants to bring companies into the Commonwealth. This provision was included in last year’s bill but then vetoed by McAuliffe. It appears again in this year’s bill, and if the Commonwealth seeks tighter ethics laws, should not be vetoed again.
As much as members of the House and Senate resist improving the laws they propose, the consequences are clear. Two bills that died — in the House and Senate, respectively — would have prohibited personal use of campaign cash and would have capped individual donations at $20,000 and campaign donations at $50,000. Campaign contributions are not yet limited in Virginia.
The current House bill still leaves loopholes. Legislators can still take advantage of gifts well over $100 by reporting them as in-kind donations on political spending reports or asking for donations to cover costs as opposed to accepting paid gifts.
To truly respond to the gravity of McDonnell’s corruption — and the potential for corruption among current legislators — legislators should craft stronger bills and eliminate these obvious loopholes, and McAuliffe should acknowledge the potential for corruption in his own office by supporting tighter restrictions there as well (a lesson from his predecessor). The compromise bill will hopefully be a step in the right direction — but that step, as it stands now, will not be enough.
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