Comments about ‘Utah Legislature: House ethics bills ready for hearings’

We have a lot of tweeking that needs to be done, I see no reason we need money involved in an election such as Corparate Money.
This is about the Peoples Election, Not Corporations.

All conflicts of interest should be disclosed. If the public official has any type of profit or gain it needs to be disclose. That means themselves, spouse, family members, and associates. If they own or work for a company that is doing business with state of local governments they should NOT own more than 5% of that business. Transparency will protect politicians and help the public build confidence in there leadership.
Campaign limits would make candidates hold more debates, cottage meetings, interacting with the voters. It would make candidates more accessible to the public. By setting donation limits (it must include party contributions) the politician will feel less obligation to those that donated to there campaign and more accountable to the public.
Set Gifts limits, say around a hundred bucks, it doesn't matter how much. Everything that is given ABSOLUTELY needs to be declared and made public. Dinner, golf, events, shirts, hats, pens, book bags, and sandwiches.
Public officials work for the public, the public deserves to know ALL gratuities and conflicts. Transparency means posting it for the public to see. Not making the public acquire a GRAMA request to see the information.

Thanks Burtis Bills you are spot on. Unfortunately too many of our legislators just don't grasp the concept of ethics or transparency - they have failed us miserably.

So if they are concerned with reporting meals, why not link this to their per diem, if they get a meal paid for by the lobbyists, then they don't get their per diem for the day, save us money. That would be ethical.

Ethics and making sure you can never get caught in a conflict of interest are two different things.