Most Utahns in favor of ethics-laws reforms

Three in four Utahns favor reform of ethics laws that affect gift-giving by lobbyists to legislators, conflicts of interest and lawmakers' conversion of campaign funds to personal use, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows.

But lawmakers say such reforms are unlikely to pass anytime soon.

"House Democrats ran reform packages for years. But with the exception of a few innocuous and ineffective changes, nothing passed," said House Minority Leader Brad King, D-Price.

He adds that while he sees insufficient support for reform now, "the sponsors of such past bills will probably wait and see how the bodies look next year after the elections. If members look more receptive, they may try the bills again."

The poll of 412 Utahns by Dan Jones & Associates was conducted Feb. 19-21, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. It found:

• 77 percent of people surveyed favor making laws about lobbyist gifts more restrictive.

• 76 percent favor banning legislators from using campaign funds for personal use.

• 78 percent favor allowing legislators to abstain on votes on which they have conflicts of interest. They now must always vote if present, even if they have conflicts.

The Morning News reported last month that lobbyists gave state legislators and executives nearly $280,000 in gifts — from Utah Jazz tickets to college sports tickets, Billy Joel and Jon Bon Jovi concerts, nights at the symphony, golf, travel to Florida and even American Express gift cards.

Legislators took $250,000 of that total. So on average, legislators accepted about $2,400 each in gifts last year. Considering that each legislator is paid $12,330 (plus some mileage) for the 45-day general session, on average gifts equaled about a fifth of their regular pay.

If a lobbyist gives a legislator gifts worth more than $50 in one day, the legislator's name must be disclosed. If the gift is under $50, then the lawmaker's name need not be disclosed, although the gift must be. Of the $250,000 in gifts that lobbyists reported giving to lawmakers last year, less than half, about $100,000 named specific recipients.

Among Utahns surveyed, only 21 percent favored keeping that current law. Another 47 percent favored banning all such gifts; 13 percent said gifts are all right as long as all recipients' names are disclosed, no matter the value of the gift; and 17 percent said more disclosure is needed, and names should be attached to gifts worth $15 or more.